MARTIN SPEAKE & DOUGLAS FINCH - Sound Clouds
Pumpkin Records – 006
Martin Speake (alto sax) Douglas Finch (piano).
Recorded at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, London. 10th July, 2013
Improvisation or composition on the fly: is there a distinction, I wonder? I raise the question because the music on this disc is much more than the usual variations on a theme that we associate with conventional jazz extemporisation. What we have here are fifteen mini tone poems most of which it is claimed were composed on the hoof without prior consultation. The result is a remarkable collaboration between Speake, a jazz saxophonist of considerable reputation and Finch, a classical pianist and fellow academic at the Trinity Laban Conservatoire neither of whom had played before other than in workshop settings.
The music they produce is undeniably cerebral but is much more than a set of etudes for scholarly analysis; there is real substance here in the way the pieces are constructed and in the dramatic effects achieved. The dialogue between the duo is conversational and at times ruminative but never aimless: the notes may be plucked out of the air but they are never wasted and there is no lazy arpeggiated padding or `free jazz` licence. In categorisation terms the music is reminiscent of Jimmy Giuffre’s introspective avant –garde leanings that found expression in the work he produced in the early sixties in collaboration with Paul Bley and Steve Swallow, but without its overtly pastoral impressionism. There is a little of that in a pair of pieces entitled `Ballad 1 & 2 but the remainder is much more diversionary taking in disjointed waltz time, a frantic, swirling scherzo with bluegrass banjo overtones, bleak and bluesy sax soaring over brooding piano chords and effects played outside and inside the piano.
Of the pieces inspired by a preconceived idea are homages to a trio of twentieth century composers. The album’s title piece is dedicated to Iannis Xennakis, the Greco –Romanian composer who constructed his music according to complex mathematical formulas, and predictably provides the most searingly avant-garde sounds to be heard on the album, taking on the nature of electronic music. In contrast the serene stasis of the music of American composer, Morton Feldman, is celebrated in a sublime coupling of elegies that capture the profound solemnity of his slow, unfolding minimalism albeit at considerably less length. Completing the triumvirate of classically inspired pieces is a nod in the direction of Shostakovich which takes the form of a fractured fugue adapted from a theme from the composer’s masterly `24 Preludes and Fugues`. Elsewhere the spirit of J.S. Bach is woven into the music’s D.N.A but this is most definitely not a `jazzing the classics` project but more an exercise in the near spontaneous creation of pure music inspired by the occasional extra-musical reference as in the haunting, impressionistic sonorities and pianistic effects of a piece invoking the image of a mirage.
Indeed, this has more to do with the meeting of musical minds from different disciplines: at no point does Finch attempt jazz piano and there is no soloing as such. Instead he maintains a chromatic commentary on the lines spun out by Speake’s alto which is at turns impassioned and blues inflected, ethereal and song like, menacing and climatic. In short `Sound Clouds` represents a most fortuitous coming together of musical intellect and instrumental virtuosity resulting in a truly stimulating and memorable demonstration of pure creativity.
Reviewed by Euan Dixon.
Pumpkin Records – 006
Martin Speake (alto sax) Douglas Finch (piano).
Recorded at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, London. 10th July, 2013
Improvisation or composition on the fly: is there a distinction, I wonder? I raise the question because the music on this disc is much more than the usual variations on a theme that we associate with conventional jazz extemporisation. What we have here are fifteen mini tone poems most of which it is claimed were composed on the hoof without prior consultation. The result is a remarkable collaboration between Speake, a jazz saxophonist of considerable reputation and Finch, a classical pianist and fellow academic at the Trinity Laban Conservatoire neither of whom had played before other than in workshop settings.
The music they produce is undeniably cerebral but is much more than a set of etudes for scholarly analysis; there is real substance here in the way the pieces are constructed and in the dramatic effects achieved. The dialogue between the duo is conversational and at times ruminative but never aimless: the notes may be plucked out of the air but they are never wasted and there is no lazy arpeggiated padding or `free jazz` licence. In categorisation terms the music is reminiscent of Jimmy Giuffre’s introspective avant –garde leanings that found expression in the work he produced in the early sixties in collaboration with Paul Bley and Steve Swallow, but without its overtly pastoral impressionism. There is a little of that in a pair of pieces entitled `Ballad 1 & 2 but the remainder is much more diversionary taking in disjointed waltz time, a frantic, swirling scherzo with bluegrass banjo overtones, bleak and bluesy sax soaring over brooding piano chords and effects played outside and inside the piano.
Of the pieces inspired by a preconceived idea are homages to a trio of twentieth century composers. The album’s title piece is dedicated to Iannis Xennakis, the Greco –Romanian composer who constructed his music according to complex mathematical formulas, and predictably provides the most searingly avant-garde sounds to be heard on the album, taking on the nature of electronic music. In contrast the serene stasis of the music of American composer, Morton Feldman, is celebrated in a sublime coupling of elegies that capture the profound solemnity of his slow, unfolding minimalism albeit at considerably less length. Completing the triumvirate of classically inspired pieces is a nod in the direction of Shostakovich which takes the form of a fractured fugue adapted from a theme from the composer’s masterly `24 Preludes and Fugues`. Elsewhere the spirit of J.S. Bach is woven into the music’s D.N.A but this is most definitely not a `jazzing the classics` project but more an exercise in the near spontaneous creation of pure music inspired by the occasional extra-musical reference as in the haunting, impressionistic sonorities and pianistic effects of a piece invoking the image of a mirage.
Indeed, this has more to do with the meeting of musical minds from different disciplines: at no point does Finch attempt jazz piano and there is no soloing as such. Instead he maintains a chromatic commentary on the lines spun out by Speake’s alto which is at turns impassioned and blues inflected, ethereal and song like, menacing and climatic. In short `Sound Clouds` represents a most fortuitous coming together of musical intellect and instrumental virtuosity resulting in a truly stimulating and memorable demonstration of pure creativity.
Reviewed by Euan Dixon.
