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| 7.359 Ft
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| 1. | The Healing Power Of Intimacy
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| 2. | Change Of Heart
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| 3. | Barefaced Thieves
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| 4. | Venn
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| 5. | Buried Somewhere
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| 6. | In The Moment
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| 7. | Three Hours
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| 8. | In Code
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Jazz / Modern Creative, Jazz Instrument, Saxophone Jazz
Recorded April 2002
Allan Titmuss Photography
Bobo Stenson Piano
Jan Erik Kongshaug Engineer
Manfred Eicher Producer
Martin Speake Sax (Alto), Composer
Mick Hutton Double Bass
Paul Motian Drums
Sascha Kleis Cover Design
The roots of the "Change of Heart" project go back to 1993, when English saxophonist Martin Speake, for many years an admirer of Paul Motian's music (he has cited Motian's trio with Frisell and Lovano as his "favourite band in jazz"), sent some of his own work to the great American drummer. Paul responded with enthusiasm, and a tour of Britain was quickly set up, in a new group that included Mick Hutton on bass. The '93 group played both Speake's and Motian's pieces, and excited the press. In The Guardian, John Fordham wrote that, "Speake's saxophone sound is a mixture of fragile, silvery high-register playing and a plush, flugelhorn-like mid-range, and his momentum has an unswerving resolution of tempo. In these respects, he resembles a Fifties Cool School improviser, but his phrasing represents a far more contemporary chemistry of long zigzagging lines and unexpected resolutions...Motian's light, impulsive touch lent buoyancy to everything, but the London musicians sounded as if they'd worked with him for years...".
With a commission to prepare new music for the Cheltenham Jazz Festival in 2000, Speake added Swedish pianist Bobo Stenson to the quartet, shaping material to accommodate Stenson's conception of jazz, as well as Motian's. At the time, Speake stressed "the importance of melody, reflection, interaction, and strong grooves in the music. A commitment to genuine improvisation is something that links each member of the band." Motian and Stenson, who had never played together before, got along so well that the drummer subsequently joined the Swedish pianist's band, recording with him on the acclaimed "Goodbye" album (ECM 1904).
The quartet made two tours of Britain before heading to Oslo to make "Change of Heart", under Manfred Eicher's direction. Inside Speake's well-crafted compositions, it is the interaction between Stenson's rolling piano and Motian's capricious drums that gives the group its unique impetus, but bassist Mick Hutton also has many strong moments - ‘earthing' the music, providing an emotional undertow, his choice of notes occasionally reminiscent of Charlie Haden. The leader's acerbic alto hovers over the turbulent waves stirred by his comrades.
Martin Speake, born in Barnet, Greater London in 1958, began playing saxophone at 16, initially inspired by Ornette Coleman. As a writer of jazz tunes he was also influenced by Keith Jarrett. In the early 1980s he was a founder member of the popular and prize-winning saxophone quartet Itchy Fingers (Deutscher Schallplattenpreis, Wire Award, Schlitz Jazz Sounds Prize etc), which toured the world's festivals and recorded for Virgin – with McCoy Tyner guesting on their first album, and Airto Moreira on their second. He has subsequently worked with Django Bates, Stan Tracey and other figures on the London jazz scene, and recorded ten albums as a leader, spanning a wide variety of styles. Recent Speake projects have included new arrangements of Charlie Parker, duo concerts with Bad Plus pianist Ethan Iverson, and collaborations with Indian musicians.
Bobo Stenson (born 1944) has long since defined the meaning of modern jazz piano in Sweden. Early in his playing career he worked with a line of visiting Americans, from Sonny Rollins to Gary Burton to Dexter Gordon, and had a particularly creative association with Don Cherry, beginning in the 1960s and lasting until the end of the great trumpeter's life (he appears on Cherry's final leader date, "Dona Nostra" (ECM 1448). Stenson made his first ECM recordings in 1971: Garbarek's "Sart" and his own trio album "Underwear", with Arild Andersen and Jon Christensen. In the mid 70s, the Jan Garbarek-Bobo Stenson Quartet was one of the hottest bands on the European festival circuit and left behind two albums widely regarded as classics: "Witchi-Tai-To" and "Dansere". In recent years a priority has been his own trio, with albums including "Reflections", "War Orphans", "Serenity" (all with Anders Jormin and Jon Christensen), and "Goodbye" (with Paul Motian on drums). For ten years from 1988-1997, Stenson worked extensively with Charles Lloyd (albums: "Fish Out Of Water", "Notes from Big Sur", "The Call", "All My Relations", "Canto") and was also a member of Tomasz Stanko's quartet and sextet (albums: "Matka Joanna", "Leosia", "Litania"). Other recent recordings include the album "Parish" with the Norwegian-Swedish group of the same name.
Paul Motian, who celebrated his 75th birthday on March 25th, is of course one of the music's history makers. His contributions to the groups of Bill Evans, Paul Bley and Keith Jarrett helped to change the course of improvisation. He has recorded extensively for ECM, his discography for the label including nine albums as a leader (the most recent are "I Have The Room Above Her" and "Garden of Eden"), plus discs with Jarrett, Bley, Marilyn Crispell, Charlie Haden, Carla Bley, Pierre Favre and Bill Frisell. Other musicians with whom he has played include Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Charles Lloyd, Zoot Sims, Lee Konitz, Martial Solal, Tony Scott, Masabumi Kikuchi and many, many others.
Mick Hutton, born 1956, first recorded for ECM in 1985 with the group First House (featuring Django Bates and Ken Stubbs). In 2001, he contributed to folk singer Robin Williamson's album, "Skirting The River Road". In between he has played with everyone from John Surman to Nigel Kennedy and has been closely associated with Speake in many projects. Although widely regarded as the outstanding jazz bassist of his generation on the London scene, Hutton has recently been obliged to abandon the bass: an injury to his left hand has forced him to switch instruments. For the last three years he has been concentrating on playing steel pans and keyboards, mostly in his own ensembles.
Hutton's current unavailability as bassist, and Motian's retirement from the road (Paul now plays only in New York City), means that "Change of Heart" is - at least for the time being - the only place to hear this remarkable quartet, making this album all the more valuable as a document...
Martin Speake has had a varied and adventurous recording career and has always been very sure of himself. Change of Heart, his debut recording for ECM, was recorded way back in 2002, so the man's development and his emotive, post-Lee Konitz style of playing has undergone even more changes since that time. However, this ensemble, including drummer Paul Motian (who has also played with Konitz) is warmly and intuitively empathetic. Pianist Bobo Stenson -- who has never sounded more assertive and symbiotic as he does here -- and bassist Mick Hutton, dig deeply into these lyrical, utterly enchanting tunes. The beautifully open structures of "The Healing Power of Intimacy" and the title cut, move away from theme/solo/theme and favor a more wandering style that may not "swing" in the traditional sense, but are fully formed and move along writerly lines to create space for all the players; Motian's cymbal-and-snare-dancing style on the former is especially engaging. Stenson's playing through the beat, tacking on small clusters of notes at the end of Speake's lines is beguiling, pushing the whole thing, wide as it is, to some kind of inner space. The lush and languid balladry of "In the Moment" is anything but, it echoes out of the past, whispers in the present, and then drifts off into the future with its compelling warmth and lyricism. Hutton's slow, assertive bottom twins both Speake and Stenson across the melodic frame, and offers them ample space to complement one another harmonically. Stenson's solo is one of the most beautiful he's ever played. Change of Heart is one of those jazz records that is at once accessible, clear and limpid. However, it also is a place of secrets, shadows, and labyrinthine gestures that are only uncovered with repeated listening. ~ Thom Jurek, Rovi
Martin Speake
Active Decades: '90s and '00s
Born: 1958 in Barnet, London, England
Genre: Jazz
Styles: Contemporary Jazz, Jazz Instrument, Modern Creative, Saxophone Jazz
Alto saxophonist Martin Speake was born in 1958 in Barnet, England, where his childhood found him surrounded by music. He was drawn initially to the rock and pop music of the day, but shortly after he left school at the age of 16, Speake purchased an alto saxophone after hearing an album by Ornette Coleman, and the course of his life as a jazz horn player became set. He studied classical saxophone at Southgate Technical College and Trinity College of Music from 1977 to 1981, after which he began gigging with other musicians, most notably the sax quartet Itchy Fingers, who toured extensively in America, South America, and Africa. Speake left Itchy Fingers in 1988 and began concentrating on his own projects, many of which were carried out under the auspices of the Martin Speake Group. He also worked as part of duos with Phil Lee, Nikki Iles, Dharambir Singh, and others, as well as participating in the Fever Pitch, Mind and Time, and Eternal Triangle ensembles. His many albums and projects include Tan T'ien (1996), Trust (1998), Journey (2004), and Change of Heart, released in 2006 on ECM Records.
---Steve Leggett, All Music Guide |
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