Frush is a project of four unsung heroes of the second generation of European free jazz - Luc Houtkamp, Sebi Tramontana, Steve Beresford and Martin Blume. Nevertheless, this categorization in no way means that they deserve to be “unsung“ - on the contrary! Houtkamp is a Dutch saxophonist (tenor, soprano) and clarinettist who has been playing with Sven-Åke Johansson from 1973 - 75 and later with the great improvisers from the Benelux countries such as Ernst Reijseger, Han Bennink, Misha Mengelberg and Fred Van Howe. Tramontana, an Italian trombonist, was initially best known on the Italian scene, later working with Paul Rutherford and Barry Guy, among others, and becoming a member of the Italian Instabile Orchestra. In the new millennium, he has been a regular at festivals such as Victoriaville (with Mario Schiano, Evan Parker, Paul Lovens and Barry Guy), he has connections to the Chicago scene around Ken Vandermark, he was a member of Mats Gustafsson’s Nu Ensemble and has played a lot with Joëlle Léandre and Paul Lovens anyway. The British pianist and multi-instrumentalist Steve Beresford is the age president of the quartet and probably the best known of the musicians. He was already part of Derek Bailey’s Company projects in the 1970s. Actually, he has played with everyone who is famous in the UK in the field of avant-garde music. Finally, the band is completed by the German drummer Martin Blume. He too can boast a significant list of collaborations: Among others with Peter Brötzmann, Lol Coxhill, Peter Kowald, Werner Lüdi, or Jay Oliver. Together with Ken Vandermark, Matthias Muche and Thomas Lehn, he forms the free jazz quartet Soundbridges .
From this somewhat lengthy introduction, you can already deduce that you can expect first-class free jazz of the European kind on Frush. The seven pieces can be divided into four longer improvisations and three shorter miniatures. What strikes you from the very beginning ist he excellent timing of the musicians. Everyone jumps into the improvisation when it suits him, but then leaves it again immediately. So somehow everyone is always involved, but then again not - there is a lot of air during the playing, but still an enormous dynamic. Very dense, energetic passages alternate with quiet moments in a matter of seconds. The dense passages sound as if a toddler is rummaging through his overflowing toy box full of exuberance (which is meant in an absolutely positive way here), while the quieter ones - mainly due to Tramontana’s mutes and Beresford’s preparations - seem almost eerie. Houtkamp’s saxophone hovers above it all, giving the impression that he is biting into the melody and shaking it back and forth like a predator does it with a large piece of meat. Blume provides a very solid background for the music, his playing is most reminiscent of that of Paul Lovens (another compliment). His contributions are lightning-fast, varied and full of surprises, both tonally and structurally. The icing on the cake are quotes, which are sprinkled throughout the pieces (e.g. Dixieland phrases in “Flusk”, classical film music at the beginning of “Fidther”, later in the piece there are modern jazz piano passages; “Fracchen“ starts with a cool jazz line). In general, the album offers a cornucopia of different sounds and little melodies.
In a nutshell, Frush offers outstanding free jazz of the old school played by masters of their trade. Anyone who likes John Butcher/Phil Durrant/Paul Lovens/Radu Malfatti/John Russell: News From The Shed, Quintet Moderne’s WellSprings or the good old Schlippenbach Trio’s Winterreisewill be well served here.
Frush is available as a CD and as a download. you can listen to the complete album and buy it here:
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