After a recent edition of my local radio jazz programme we received an anonymous email complaining that “there was no real jazz in the show”.
As I’d featured tracks by Hampton, Webster and Hawkins (admittedly alongside upstarts like Coltrane) I assumed that our listener dismissed any style that developed after Armstrong recorded his first solo as not “proper” jazz.
I wonder how they would feel about a jazz magazine reviewing the abundant output of the admirable Discus label, which boasts a catalogue embracing a wide range of improvised music. As it happens, there were passages in a previous collaboration by these musicians, Port Of Saints (Discus 128CD) that distinctly evoked blues and New Orleans processions at times.
Be that as it may…
Like Port Of Saints this album is a suite but each track could be listened to satisfactorily in isolation. Archer recorded electro-acoustic frameworks to which Perez added real-time laptop improvisations. Other parts were mixed in and finally Caines added his responses to these soundscapes. If all this sounds stiff and over-technical it doesn’t come across like that: it’s highly atmospheric (sometimes rather beautiful, as in Part 7) and it could easily persuade you that it was a fully live in-person jam, especially during Part 6. Caines’s final touches are sometimes gracefully lyrical, sometimes fiery and intense, but always apposite and adding value to the pieces. No tubas or banjos, but this should appeal to many of our jazz-loving readers.
Discography
Practical Dreamers parts 1 – 7 (55.30)
Ron Caines (ss, as); Martin Archer (cl, bcl, f, tuned pc, hca, elec, whistles); Laura Cole (p): Anton Hunter (elg, elec);, Michael barden (clo); Gus Garside (b); Johnny Hunter (d); Herve Perez (laptop, sound processing). Sheffield, Riddlesden, Yorkshire, Brighton, Sussex, June 2023 to March 2024.
Discus 178CD
