BRUCE COATES - Locked
SLAM Productions SLAMCD 2110
Bruce Coates, saxophones; Barry Edwards, guitar; Trevor Lines, bass; Ed Gauden, drums
Recorded live at The Hermon Chapel, Oswestry, 18 April 2019
SLAM Productions has a habit of more than excelling in its selection and provision of outstanding music, especially in the free improvisation/free jazz arenas. This album is one such – an absolute delight. The four musicians are definitely ‘as one’ together. Their music seems always to be developing genetically, yet spontaneously, happening in a continuous, natural manner.
Saxophonist Bruce Coates has performed and recorded with some first-class, free-improvising musicians such as Lol Coxhill and Paul Dunmall; indeed, there are some phrases in his soprano playing which echo the sound of the former.
Bassist Trevor Lines has worked variously with Coates for some thirty years. He switched from folk and experimental rock to double-bass and jazz and improvised music and co-founded the Birmingham Musicians Co-operative and Fizzle, both promoting free improvisation.
Guitarist Barry Edwards works in the fields of jazz and improvised music. He, too, has performed and recorded with Paul Dunmall. He seems to be the trigger which prompts the quartet to step aside from its routine and into unfamiliar, untested areas. His playing is unreservedly fluent, helped along by his intriguing multiplicity of resonances.
Drummer Ed Gauden progressed to jazz drumming at Birmingham Conservatoire where he met up with Barry Edwards and other jazz improvisers. He performed at Cheltenham at just 19 and regularly plays with Edwards.
Barry Edwards also runs the venue where this CD was recorded, Hermon Chapel Arts Centre in Oswestry, Shropshire. It was formerly a chapel, now converted to an Arts Centre, which accommodates live music, visual arts, literature events and workshops, et al. His role is shared with Claudia Lis, ceramicist and budding alto player.
There is some very strong playing in parts, especially from the tenor/drums’ duets and again from the sax/guitar combinations – listen out for these. Once submerged into this intricate free-improv, I found an intriguing forest of exquisite sounds and rhythms, all inviting me to listen even more closely. That’s not difficult at all.
Reviewed by Ken Cheetham
SLAM Productions SLAMCD 2110
Bruce Coates, saxophones; Barry Edwards, guitar; Trevor Lines, bass; Ed Gauden, drums
Recorded live at The Hermon Chapel, Oswestry, 18 April 2019
SLAM Productions has a habit of more than excelling in its selection and provision of outstanding music, especially in the free improvisation/free jazz arenas. This album is one such – an absolute delight. The four musicians are definitely ‘as one’ together. Their music seems always to be developing genetically, yet spontaneously, happening in a continuous, natural manner.
Saxophonist Bruce Coates has performed and recorded with some first-class, free-improvising musicians such as Lol Coxhill and Paul Dunmall; indeed, there are some phrases in his soprano playing which echo the sound of the former.
Bassist Trevor Lines has worked variously with Coates for some thirty years. He switched from folk and experimental rock to double-bass and jazz and improvised music and co-founded the Birmingham Musicians Co-operative and Fizzle, both promoting free improvisation.
Guitarist Barry Edwards works in the fields of jazz and improvised music. He, too, has performed and recorded with Paul Dunmall. He seems to be the trigger which prompts the quartet to step aside from its routine and into unfamiliar, untested areas. His playing is unreservedly fluent, helped along by his intriguing multiplicity of resonances.
Drummer Ed Gauden progressed to jazz drumming at Birmingham Conservatoire where he met up with Barry Edwards and other jazz improvisers. He performed at Cheltenham at just 19 and regularly plays with Edwards.
Barry Edwards also runs the venue where this CD was recorded, Hermon Chapel Arts Centre in Oswestry, Shropshire. It was formerly a chapel, now converted to an Arts Centre, which accommodates live music, visual arts, literature events and workshops, et al. His role is shared with Claudia Lis, ceramicist and budding alto player.
There is some very strong playing in parts, especially from the tenor/drums’ duets and again from the sax/guitar combinations – listen out for these. Once submerged into this intricate free-improv, I found an intriguing forest of exquisite sounds and rhythms, all inviting me to listen even more closely. That’s not difficult at all.
Reviewed by Ken Cheetham
