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John Surman – Phrases Unstated
(ECM 2789 / 5862035. Album evaluation by Julian Maynard-Smith)
For the reason that mid-sixties when he performed baritone saxophone with the Mike Westbrook Band, John Surman has been one of the vital immediately recognisable voices in jazz. Partially, it’s due to his uncommon alternative of horns: soprano and baritone saxophones, plus the bass clarinet – a comparatively uncommon beast in jazz.
Extra considerably, Surman’s sound on all three horns could be very a lot his personal, typically suffused with the misleading simplicity of people songs and hymns. Surman may need lived in Oslo for a few years, however he can nonetheless conjure up a profoundly English spirit of Albion.
His lengthy relationship with ECM started with Barre Phillips’ Mountainscapes (1976), and the primary ECM album beneath his personal identify was Upon Reflection (1979), the primary of quite a lot of multitracked recordings the place he accompanies himself over rippling synthesizer strains. For his newest recording on ECM, he’s discovered the right musicians to mix the hypnotic qualities and weird instrumentation of these multitracked solo albums with the spontaneous interaction of a dwell group. Vibraphonist Rob Waring had already proved himself sympathetic to this aesthetic on Surman’s earlier album, Invisible Threads (2019), a trio efficiency accomplished by pianist Nelson Ayres. All through Phrases Unstated, Waring’s vibraphone dances enchantingly with Rob Luft’s guitar, which regularly shimmers and sparkles like daylight refracted on water; and underpinning all of it whereas nonetheless leaving loads of air are the drums of Thomas Strønen.
‘Pebble Dance’ opens the album with rippling vibraphone, guitar swells and arpeggios, and splashes of percussion. When Surman joins on soprano, it’s gently at first however constructing to free-jazz squalls. If these pebbles are dancing it’s on a storm-tossed shore, however they’re steadily swept in the direction of a folk-like melody earlier than cannoning right into a speedy unison passage for a dramatic end. The entire album glides superbly between moods, from the dreamy impressionism of ‘Flower in Aspic’ to the slinky syncopation of the irrepressibly catchy ‘Hawksmoor’ – on which, as with ‘Pebble Dance’, there’s a way not of shifting from the melody in the direction of an improvisation however the reverse, of a tune’s form steadily forming just like the silhouette of a tor from the Dartmoor mists of Surman’s youth.
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At seventy-nine, Surman is a good distance from his youth. However he performs with such vigour and fervour on this gorgeous album that one would by no means guess. Phrases Unstated is a beautiful addition to an already spectacular discography.
Phrases Unstated is launched on 16 February. Distributor is Correct Music
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