review 1. The Wire

During its four year existence from 1988, Free Jazz Quartet released only one CD, Premonitions, so the previously unreleased Memories for the Future, recorded in 1992 at a concert in Bristol, doubles their output. The moniker Free Jazz Quartet seems to set the group — Paul Rutherford (trombone), Harrison Smith (tenor and soprano saxes, bass clarinet), Tony Moore (cello) and Eddie Prévost (drums) — apart from self-conscious, 'non-idiomatic' free improvisation. But Rutherford made a key key contribution to the development of free improv in his Iskra groups, and Prévost is best known for his work in that area. In fact this recording seems to balance the twin poles of free jazz and free improv — indeed it often references a regular swing pulse.

Rutherford, who died in 2007, produced varied levels of performance in his later career, but this recording finds him in relaxed, highly creative form; equally individual, though, is the blustery tenor of the less well-known Harrison Smith. The opening, very free 'A Fertile Valley' begins with unaccompanied duet by searching trombone and bass clarinet, soon joined by tremolo cello and gently rustling percussion. In contrast, Moore on cello sets up a folksy vamp on 'Pulsate', which he refers to loosely throughout: it's still relatively unusual to hear this instrument taking on the role of bass, and Moore's guitar-like facility is shown in some strudent arpeggiated skittering effects on 'Summoning." On this driving track, he's paired with Prévost on mallets, and before the horns join the melée the pulse edges into and out of focus; the drummer's solo piece 'Octavian Law', in contrast, sets up a highly controlled, waxing and waning son continu. This is careful, considered, often rather delicate music — free jazz in the sense of searching and exploratory, rather than ecstatic.

Andy Hamilton The Wire February 2010