Review: ALLABOUTJAZZ-NEW YORK

Butcher has become a top name in the chiefly
British variety of minimalist improvisation that can
best be described as existing in the wake of the
longstanding ensemble AMM and with Sounding Music
he steps into the rotating membership of that
venerable ensemble. The disc, in fact, gives a happily
resounding reassurance that recent upsets within the
group haven’t affected its brand marketability. On this
occasion, during London’s 2009 Freedom of the City
festival, they were even joined by composer Christian
Wolff (piano, bass guitar and melodica), who had
played with the group for a year in the late ‘60s.
Rounding out the quintet (with core members
drummer Eddie Prévost and pianist John Tilbury at
center) was cellist Ute Kanngiesser. It was, no doubt, a
major event in the festival and is an important entry in
the group’s lengthy discography. But more to the
point, it is simply wonderful work. The opening trills
of piano (likely Tilbury) set the tone that this will be a
very musical moment for the sound-sculpting
ensemble and indeed it is for the first half of the single,
51-minute track. The group dynamic turns slowly,
never coming off as an identifiable quintet (in fact
never even having the feel of two pianos!). Butcher’s
saxophones (as always, the tenor and soprano) meld
with Kanngiesser’s cello and rushes and wheezes
ultimately, delicately, take over the whole of the
improvisation. It’s a fragile and beautiful work.

Kurt Gottschalk
ALLABOUTJAZZ-NEW YORK — August 2010 |