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SIX IN ONE - Subjects and Structures

Slam Records SLAMCD 2102

Bruce Coates - Sopranino, Soprano and Alto Saxophones; Paul Dunmall - Tenor Saxophone; Corey Mwamba - Vibraphone and Recorder; Walt Shaw - Percussion and Electronics; Seth Bennett – Bass; Mark Sanders – Drums
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Recorded 15th August 2015, in Derby, England

Saxophonist Bruce Coates is Senior Lecturer in Music at Newman University, Birmingham.  He has long been profoundly involved with free improvisation, free jazz and experimental music and has worked with many other musicians who are equally committed to the genre.  Paul Dunmall is perhaps one of the better known on the British scene.
There are just three tracks, not quite 70 minutes in total.  The first, Subjects, reveals total empathy between all six players, finding more than adequate spaces for their solos, yet equally stimulated in all the ‘connective tissues’ of their combined, communal passages.

Structures is again a long piece.  An unusual rhythm accompanies the two saxes which engage in a sort of duet which is really like two separate solos being played one against the other.  There is no competition though; this is just the ethos of true improvisation.

The whole album is shared in such a way, the synergy being magnificent.  Such inventiveness, so fertile, intricate and lush, rejoices in the unrestricted ambience of the Free aesthetic.

Reviewed by Ken Cheetham

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ECM celebrates 50 years of music production with the Touchstones series of re-issues