YURI GOLOUBEV - Two Chevrons Apart
Basho Records SRCD57-2
Yuri Goloubev (acoustic bass) Tim Garland (soprano and tenor saxophones) John Turville (piano) Asaf Sirkis (drums) Recorded October 22th to 24th, Udine, Italy.
There is more than a whiff of academia about this latest offering from Russian bassist Goloubev but this is to be expected from a musician who prior to moving to Milan to devote his career to jazz was a former principle bass with the celebrated Moscow Soloists Chamber Orchestra. As with his other projects including his previous collaborations with Gwilym Simcock and Alex Hutton his command of classical modes is very much to the fore both in terms of his compositions and improvisational technique.
His musical vision is mediated through the medium of eight original pieces that might usefully be categorised as chamber jazz displaying varied textures and shifting tempi with each instrumentalist engaged in a conversational exchange of melodic and extemporised phrases, sustained, prodded and energised by choppy percussive accents, flams, fills and muted thunder as the tension rises within each piece. Goloubev plays pizzicato throughout, his taut fingering articulating lines of lyrical invention with consummate ease and clarity, weaving in and out of the tapestry of sound created by Turville’s swirling progressions and Garland’s sweetly singing soprano sax: the effect if not quite baroque, blues or bop is surely a bit of all three in fertile union.
Many of the pieces start out with a drifting, introspective rubato passage before gathering pace and advancing through various changes of tempo whilst Garland, playing mostly soprano, rides overhead in pursuit of original lines of expression which he executes with characteristic elegance. On two occasions he takes up his tenor putting it to bracingly good use on the album’s liveliest piece, a jaunty tune entitled `Sweet Nothings` which opens with an alla marcia swagger before transitioning through several rhythmic sequences. There is a particularly fine solo from Turville on this one.
Garland sits out on the curious but intriguing `Cemetery Symmetry`, a sombre piece which opens with a measured funereal tread almost coming to a halt with the bass intoning softly over tolling piano chords, creating a dark hued tone poem of the type associated with the classical romanticism of Beethoven and Schubert whose names are referenced in the title of the opening piece, setting the scene for what unfolds as a body of stimulating, intelligent music that calls for the serious attention and quiet contemplation of `deep listening`.
Reviewed by Euan Dixon
Basho Records SRCD57-2
Yuri Goloubev (acoustic bass) Tim Garland (soprano and tenor saxophones) John Turville (piano) Asaf Sirkis (drums) Recorded October 22th to 24th, Udine, Italy.
There is more than a whiff of academia about this latest offering from Russian bassist Goloubev but this is to be expected from a musician who prior to moving to Milan to devote his career to jazz was a former principle bass with the celebrated Moscow Soloists Chamber Orchestra. As with his other projects including his previous collaborations with Gwilym Simcock and Alex Hutton his command of classical modes is very much to the fore both in terms of his compositions and improvisational technique.
His musical vision is mediated through the medium of eight original pieces that might usefully be categorised as chamber jazz displaying varied textures and shifting tempi with each instrumentalist engaged in a conversational exchange of melodic and extemporised phrases, sustained, prodded and energised by choppy percussive accents, flams, fills and muted thunder as the tension rises within each piece. Goloubev plays pizzicato throughout, his taut fingering articulating lines of lyrical invention with consummate ease and clarity, weaving in and out of the tapestry of sound created by Turville’s swirling progressions and Garland’s sweetly singing soprano sax: the effect if not quite baroque, blues or bop is surely a bit of all three in fertile union.
Many of the pieces start out with a drifting, introspective rubato passage before gathering pace and advancing through various changes of tempo whilst Garland, playing mostly soprano, rides overhead in pursuit of original lines of expression which he executes with characteristic elegance. On two occasions he takes up his tenor putting it to bracingly good use on the album’s liveliest piece, a jaunty tune entitled `Sweet Nothings` which opens with an alla marcia swagger before transitioning through several rhythmic sequences. There is a particularly fine solo from Turville on this one.
Garland sits out on the curious but intriguing `Cemetery Symmetry`, a sombre piece which opens with a measured funereal tread almost coming to a halt with the bass intoning softly over tolling piano chords, creating a dark hued tone poem of the type associated with the classical romanticism of Beethoven and Schubert whose names are referenced in the title of the opening piece, setting the scene for what unfolds as a body of stimulating, intelligent music that calls for the serious attention and quiet contemplation of `deep listening`.
Reviewed by Euan Dixon
