This first track was recorded exactly thirty years ago in Germany, and features a British-German band consisting of Elton Dean on sax and saxello, Alan Skidmore on tenor, Mark Charig and Harry Becket on trumpet, Nick evans and Radu Malfatti on trombone, Keith Tippett on piano, Harry Miller on bass and Louis Moholo on drums. It is a great, though not exceptional long group improvisation, that keeps a nice lightness despite the nine musicians, with all of them taking turns for the soloing and shifting between free bop and completely free playing: intense, quite lyrical and full of variation.
The second track was recorded a year later and consists of a trio with Harry Beckett on trumpet, Harry Miller on bass and Louis Moholo on drums. Apart from their frequent collaboration with Elton Dean, this music has no relation to the nonet mentioned above. The difference is immediately obvious, with Miller's bowing and Moholo's drumming having a much clearer and crisper sound, not only better recorded but also with the rhythm section contributing more to the music itself. This performance is quite stellar and a magnificent tribute to a trumpeter who made his mark in British and European jazz in the last decades and who sadly passed away last year. He does not sustain his notes, which gives his playing a dry, non-resonating quality, yet his tone is also warm and clear, even playing is quite fast and uptempo. He does this with a kind of natural joy that is contagious, and keeps pushing the South-Africans Miller and Moholo further on, leaving them to a great duet in the middle part of the track, one bursting with energy and lightning speed interaction.
An easy album to recommend for free jazz fans, even if you get two different bands with totally different approaches.
Listen and download from eMusic.
© stef
3 comments:
It's a shame that someone doesn't release some of the excellent live recordings lying around. Unfortunately they only released two official records (both on Ogun) one of which 'Happy Daze' nearly captures what the group was about.
I saw Ninesense back in '78, it was a life changing experience - for me. Since then in a constant quest to dig up recordings by this group I've come across quite a few (if sometimes poor) recordings of the band live. Often the music is ferocious and reaches the transcendental heights that the likes of Clotrane were also seeking.
What's lying around in the vaults (or someone's closet) would easily make up a box set of all this live material. This was (along with Harry Miller's 'Isipingo') surely one of the great groups of European jazz.
Considering that Harry Miller died in 1983, you might want to correct your arithmetic by saying these recordings are 30 years old, not 20.
Indeed, Patrick. My mistake. Math is not my forte.
stef
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