Two from Paul Dunmall

By Gary Chapin

Paul Dunmall has been around for a while and has a huge discography. It’s one thing to notice that he started out in the Canterbury orbit, but he’s done much much more. This isn’t just a phenomenon of the past. After reviewing Laura Jurd and Paul Dunmall’s, Fanfares and Freedoms (Discus) a few months ago, I was looking at the lists of stuff coming out. I said, “Hey, look! Another one with Paul Dunmall! And another, and another, and two more. And, hey, would you believe another?” Here are two of those.

Paul Dunmall - Red Hot Ice (Discus, 2024) *****

Paul Dunmall comes off as a “muscular tenor” in his new recording with large band, Red Hot Ice (Discus, 2024). This is the strong first impression left by the first track, “Prepare for Peace,” which could easily be a tribute to Sun Ra, with Dunmall playing the John Gilmore role. The c. soprano shows up later (sounds like a sopranino), but the album feels like an out-there tenor concerto showpiece. The band (Percy Pursglove - trumpet, Richard Foote - trombone, Alicia Gardener-Trejo - baritone saxophone, James Birkett - electric guitar, Andrew Woodhead - synthesizers, organ, rhodes, Glen Leach - acoustic piano, lorenzo organ, voice, James Owston - double bass, Jim Bashford - drums) is stellar.

Track two, a fifteen minute journey which begins with a virtuosic bass solo frolic, and then launches into music that could accompany Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse as they pursue their arch villains. The tenor solo kicks in over an organ and swinging cymbals, guitar stabs. This is cinematic stuff, with space ships and monsters. “The Past” is a bolero-ish piece, with a fantastic baritone solo from Alicia Gardiner. The title piece is a twenty-one minute tour de force of comprovisation with some Mingus-isms in there, and the closer, “Dearly Departed,” is a ballad-ish thing that sticks the landing with beauty and even, dare I say it, tenderness. Five stars. 

Paul Dunmall Quartet - Here Today Gone Tomorrow (RogueArt, 2024)

Here Today Gone Tomorrow (RogueArt, 2024) is a quartet date featuring Dunmall with Liam Noble, John Edwards, and Mark Sanders. It’s a completely free improv affair featuring two long tracks over 20 minutes, and a medium length, 15 minute, “encore.” This is “just like it says on the tin” recording, with a fantastic set of musicians using a near-telepathic connection to move through improvised stories quiet and vulgar, angry and kind. The two long pieces are ostensible suites. Noble, Edwards, and Sanders are so strong that, occasionally, when they do a trio turn and then Dunmall re-enters, you find you’ve forgotten there’s a sax involved.

But there is a sax involved and the fourof these musicians give us an exquisite 65-ish minutes. Dunmall tends to stay in the middle and lower ends of the tenor, not spending so much time in the over-blowing stratosphere. This contributes to the sense of coherence that carries through the record. One man. One voice. The soprano sections (maybe one quarter of the record) do what soprano sections do best, but there’s a continuum of voice from the tenor pieces. That this is a great disc should surprise no one, among the best in his body of work.