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CD |
Kérjen
árajánlatot! |
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| 1. | Mysterium
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| 2. | Rising Tide
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| 3. | Outback Spirits
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| 4. | Underground Movement
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| 5. | Ganges Groove
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| 6. | Fair Trade
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| 7. | Song for World Forgiveness
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Jazz
Recorded: November 2000
John Surman - Clarinet (Bass), Liner Notes, Main Performer, Producer, Sax (Baritone), Sax (Soprano), Synthesizer
Jack DeJohnette - Drums, Electronic Percussion, Piano
The first duo album by John Surman and Jack DeJohnette in more than 20 years - since 1981's "Amazing Adventures of Simon Simon" - is an exultant, highly atmospheric disc recorded live at the jazz festivals of Berlin and Tampere. Surman and DeJohnette play totally improvised music that sounds pre-composed. Of the pieces on "Invisible Nature", only one has a prearranged harmonic structure: the rest of the music is simply pulled out of the ether, and takes many forms. From the long almost ambient introductory "Mysterium" to the free blues of "Outback Spirits" to the Indian colours of "Ganges Groove", this is improvisation of great variety. Long-time followers of Surman will be glad to hear him wailing joyously once more, over DeJohnette's propulsive drums. With additional use of electronics, the duo often sound like a larger band. DeJohnette's electronic percussion allows him to add a bass line from time to time, or to simulate sounds of congas, tabla and tympani. Surman's synthesizers, meanwhile, add spaciousness and depth to the instrumental texture.
* Ekkehard Stoffregen - Engineer
* Jan Jedlicka - Cover Photo, Photography
* Ralf Siren - Engineer
* Sascha Kleis - Design
* Steve Lake - Producer
* Steve Lowe - Engineer
* Ulf Drechsel - Radio Producer
* Veli-Pekka Heinonen - Radio Producer
* W. Patrick Hinely - Photography
* Wolfgang Hoff - Sound Supervision
Recorded live at the Berlin Jazz Festival and the Tampere Jazz Happening in November 2000, "Invisible Nature" is the overdue follow-up to "The Amazing Adventures of Simon Simon", the 1981 debut by the John Surman/JackDeJohnette duo. The musical relationship between the two men goes back still further, however. In 1968, when DeJohnette was in London with the Bill Evans Trio at Ronnie Scott's Club, he took time out to improvise with local musicians. John Surman: "Jack instigated a jam session series in the afternoons, and the word got out. So I was there, along with John McLaughlin, Dave Holland and Tony Oxley."
Surman and DeJohnette found an immediate affinity and have been in close contact ever since. Jack and John also had a mutual friend in drummer Stu Martin, and in '74 Surman moved to Woodstock in New York State for six months, to be close to both of them. It was a period of pooling ideas and energies. Surman played briefly with DeJohnette's Directions band, which was also where he met and befriended guitarist John Abercrombie, another important contact for the future. Jack and John's first recording together for ECM took place in 1978, on guitarist Mick Goodrick's "In Pas(s)ing" album, and the first duo gig as such was at a drum clinic in Milan, shortly before the "Simon Simon" session. "An amazingly intense experience", Surman remembers, "I walked away reeling from it - and was keen to repeat it as soon as possible!"
Through the 80s and 90s, the Surman/DeJohnette duo was intermittently operational, a format joyfully returned to when crowded schedules allowed. In 1990, John and Jack premiered new music with the Balanescu Quartet and a decade later wrote also for the London Brass ensemble. Their collaboration with London Brass was recorded in 2001 and is scheduled for future ECM release. Meanwhile, the duo: a remarkably big sounding small group, committed to free improvising and spontaneous composition. Their pleasure in this shared freedom is palpable, both men are given to exultant and tumultuous playing, but there are also tender and carefully considered moments.
"Mysterium" from Finland's Tampere festival, immediately sketches some of the possibilities.DeJohnette plays bass patterns on an electronic drum, syncopated in real time with his subtle kit sounds while Surman simultaneously supplies a drone on keyboard synthesizer and floats his yearning reed cries through a digital delay unit. The group sound here is vast, cavernous.
The duo uses electronics to shape the acoustical spaces in which the music unfolds. "Ganges Groove", for instance, is an intimate piece suggestive of an Indian recital room: played with hands, DeJohnette's electronic drum takes on tabla sonorities, while Surman's MIDI wind controller sounds like the bansuri flute's high tech cousin.
DeJohnette's ingenuity on the electronic drum also brings the colours of congas and pedal-tympani into the music on "Fair Trade" and "Outback Spirits" respectively. The drummer's sensitivity to sound colour is as evident here as it is in his extraordinary kit playing.
Recent Surman recordings on ECM have emphasized his growing confidence as a composer: the Mercury Prize nominated oratorio "Proverbs and Songs", the music for reeds, string quartet and double-bass on "Coruscating". We have also seen Surman integrate his improvisational skills in the quasi-classical context of John Dowland songs with ex-Hilliard Ensemble singer John Potter on "In Darkness Let Me Dwell". "Invisible Nature", however, has a closer relationship to the kind of music John Surman made when he first burst upon the scene as a galvanic player of prodigious gifts. His unfettered, freely expressive soloing from Berlin and Tampere will speak to those who recall, for instance, the Surman/Barre Phillips/Stu Martin Trio. John Surman has long been one of the most resourceful musicians in jazz, as well as one of its most lyrical soloists. But sparks fly and something special happens when he is challenged by strong rhythm.
Jack DeJohnette is particularly happy that current playing opportunities - with both the "Standards Trio", with Keith Jarrett and Gary Peacock, and in the duo with Surman - are putting emphasis on free collective playing once more. The drummer of course has worked the entire tradition of jazz, and played with everyone from Thelonious Monk to Miles Davis and Sonny Rollins, but he made some of his earliest artistic statements as a member of the Chicago avant-garde, with Muhal Richard Abrams' Experimental Band and other units at the birth of the AACM. He also played with Coltrane in the transitional period between the groups with Elvin Jones and Rashied Ali, and the concept of creating "in the moment" remains important to him. And, as he points out, while there are many musicians who engage in group improvisation today, there are few who can create spontaneous song forms as Surman can, his melodic instincts functioning amid even the most heated improvisational exchanges ...
John Surman (on baritone and soprano saxophones, bass clarinet, and synthesizers) and Jack DeJohnette (playing drums, electronic percussion, and piano) make for a very intriguing duo on these seven originals taken from a pair of live concerts. Other than "Song for World Forgiveness" (a ballad mostly by DeJohnette), the music is primarily freely improvised yet manages to be melodic, diverse, and logical. The performances are atmospheric, with both players utilizing electronics in spots while retaining their own musical personalities. Surman has long been a very flexible and mostly laid-back player, while DeJohnette also has the ability to fit in almost anywhere. Rather than individual melodies or solos, this CD is most notable for its overall feel and the blend between these two unique musicians.
--- Scott Yanow, All Music Guide
John Surman
Active Decades: '60s, '70s, '80s, '90s and '00s
Born: Aug 30, 1944 in Tavistock, England
Genre: Jazz
Styles: Avant-Garde Jazz, Jazz Blues, Jazz-Rock, Modern Composition, Post-Bop
John Surman was one of the very few saxmen in England to find a significant audience in rock during the late '60s, playing gigs regularly at venues like the Marquee Club in London. Also a clarinetist of some renown, and no slouch on keyboards either, the atmospheric sounds that Surman creates on his horns has been a major asset to the ECM label ever since the late '70s; but, before that, he was an extremely prolific artist on Deram, Futura, Dawn, and Island, cutting seven solo albums between 1968 and 1974 on those mainstream pop-oriented labels, as well as recording with Morning Glory on Island. One of England's top jazz players of the past several decades, Surman is particularly strong on the baritone. Surman played in jazz workshops while still in high school. He studied at the London College of Music and London University Institute of Education in the mid-'60s, played with Alexis Korner and Mike Westbrook until the late '60s, and recorded with the latter until the mid-'70s. He was voted best soloist at the 1968 Montreux Festival while heading his band. Surman worked with Graham Collier, Mike Gibbs, Dave Holland, Chris McGregor, and John McLaughlin in the '60s, and toured Europe with the Kenny ClarkeFrancy Boland big band in 1970. Surman toured and recorded with Barre Phillips and Stu Martin in the late '60s and early '70s, and again in the late '70s, adding Albert Mangelsdorff to the group. They called themselves the Trio, then Mumps. Surman played with Mike Osborne and Alan Skidmore in the sax trio SOS in the mid-'70s. He also collaborated with the Carolyn Carlson dance company at the Paris Opera through the mid- and late '70s. Surman recorded with Stan Tracey and Karin Krog, while working with Miroslav Vitous and Azimuth. He led the Brass Project in the early '80s, and played in Collier's big band and Gil Evans' British orchestra. Surman toured with Evans again in the late '80s. He began recording as a leader for Pye in the early '70s, and did sessions for Ogun and ECM. Surman continued recording in the '80s, mostly for ECM. He worked with Terje Rypdal, Jack DeJohnette, Pierre Favre, Bengt Hallberg, Archie Shepp, Warne Marsh, and Red Mitchell, among others. Surman has made many recordings for ECM, spanning from free form to mood music, and he remains one of the label's most consistently stimulating artists.
---Ronn Wynn & Bruce Eder, All Music Guide |
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