Olie Brice, Rachel Musson, Mark Sanders - Immense Blue (West Hill Records, 2024)

By Sammy Stein

Immense Blue is a release from Ollie Brice on bass, Rachel Musson on tenor sax, and Mark Sanders on drums. The music was recorded at London’s Vortex Jazz Club and although it is just three tracks, together they create over fifty minutes of improvised music. The longest track, ‘Jump The Hidden Balcony The Air’ starts as a whisper, each instrument making their presence felt with gentle riffles, phrases, and wisps of introduction. The sax is first to set off on an explorative journey, working its way across registers and limitations, with bass and drums following.

A commonality in all the tracks is the ensemble playing from the three improvisers. The sax leads often but the percussive lines from drums and bass work their way through and into the textural patterns, so their presence is keenly felt. Even when the tenor sax is left briefly at one point delivering paired notes into near silence, the arco bass joins in and sings out its lines.

The opening track could be divided in several places because there are sudden and massive shifts in direction, but the fact it is all connected and you can sense the musicians have a deep connection while playing makes sense to keep it as a single track. Over several listens, the different rhythms, patterns, and subtle changes can be heard. Even if the album is played several times in a sitting, it feels different every time as the ears find another trail laid down by one of the instruments to follow. Sander’s drum solo in the opening track is entertaining and flows freely across several changes but through this album, there is plenty of opportunity given to each musician and they all shine in separate ways at different places.

‘Streched Polyphone’ (deliberate mis-spelling) is aptly named for its contrapuntal content and at least three lines (maybe more) of melody – yet the connections are there and the divergent melodic lines merge and blend enough to create unity –and the bass solo is just gorgeous.

‘Hollow Circle and Round Edge Scream’ includes a bluesy feel in the opening lines, provided by a diligent bass line, over which the sax raucously travels the chromatics. This track is packed with energy and dynamics.

While, with just three tracks, it feels necessary to discuss them individually, the album should be taken as a whole because the interconnectivity between the musicians, in their playing styles, listening to each other’s lines and how they then react, is palpable.

As an improvised creation, this recording is, as the title suggests, immense and has a touch of blue too.

Simplified to a one-line review – this is creative improvisation at its best.