Faith
Brackenbury (violin, viola); John O’Gallagher (alto sax); John Pope (bass);
Tony Bianco (drums)
A set of high intensity free jazz interactions captured live at
The Vortex, London in early 2024. Brackenbury and Bianco have worked together
as a duo for a number of years and this is their third Discus Music release,
following their opening fire music statement Rising Up (112CD) and the mystical
Hildegard von Bingen + Coltrane inspired Wayward Mystic (140CD).
The addition of Pope and O’Gallagher expands the duo into a formidable
improvising quartet.
Tony Bianco writes: “In this world overwhelmed by confusion, it was
great to have purpose for 7 days. That’s how many dates Sentient Beings had on
their tour in February 2024. This recording is the last night of the tour.
As soon as we met, there seemed to be a joy. Joy and camaraderie. As soon as we
hit, it was happening. The purpose was the Truth of playing, bringing us out of
the confusion of this world. Truth is. It’s in front of us all the time. That’s
where the music comes from. We all go through the ups and downs of life. Hills
and Valleys, but Truth is not the enemy.”
5 Slayleigh Lane,
Sheffield S10 3RE, England
www.discus-music.org
www.discusmusic.bandcamp.com
www.facebook.com/discusmusic
mw.archer@btinternet.com
1 comment :
The Sentient Beings quartet played a superb gig at the Globe back in January, and it's great to be reminded of how good they were with this album, recorded live around a week after their Newcastle appearance. The original version of the band had Paul Dunmall on reeds - a hard act to follow, but American saxophonist John O'Gallagher proved a worthy replacement - in fact something of a revelation, reinforcing the nature of free improvisation as 'instant composition' with passages that were utterly spontaneous yet felt like exquisitely conceived melodies.
The music on the album is described as "fiery and dynamic", and much of it certainly fits this characterisation, but it perhaps fails to recognise the tonal variety in the playing as the four musicians come together in various permutations, freely exploring possibilities across the dynamic range. This is perhaps particularly noteworthy in the contributions of band leader Tony Bianco, who can at times be a remorselessly torrential player, but here is unfailingly sympathetic in his support of his fellow musicians (which isn't to say that he doesn't unleash some thunderous assaults when appropriate!).
But it's probably wrong to single out the contributions of any individual member of the quartet; this is primarily a collective endeavour of close listening and empathetic response, with each of the participants equally free to subtly shift the direction of the music. Very highly recommended.
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