Laura Jurd & Paul Dunmall: Fanfares & Freedoms (Discus 181CD)
Paul Dunmall is enjoying something of a renaissance at the moment, this adventurous live set coming close on the heels of the wondrous 2023 album Bright Light A Joyous Celebration (Discus 162CD), reviewed by me in JJ. The hook-up with Martin Archer and Discus Records is obviously paying dividends. Fanfares & Freedoms arose out of commission for trumpeter Laura Jurd from the Cheltenham Jazz Festival and was recorded live at the Vortex Club in London in October 2023.
The trick Jurd manages to pull off here is the “mad challenge” of putting Dunmall’s own improvising quartet up against a notated brass quintet and blurring the differences between improvised and notated music. Jurd was aware of Dunmall’s prowess as an improviser, but was bowled over by his “utterly courageous and no-holds-barred engagement with the present” when she heard him live at the first rehearsal of this music.
At first, the music begins with a call and response, the opening brass fanfare of the opening Fanfare alternating with Dunmall’s responses first on soprano, then on tenor. But gradually the two sections begin to merge, as individual members interact with each other in varying combinations. With Dunmall at full throttle, and adventurous pianist Liam Noble ever inventive, this set can’t really fail, its two-trumpet, two-trombone and tuba brass interventions a sonorous and often joyous blast right up until their final fade.
Loz Speyer’s Inner Space: Live In Leipzig (Spherical Records SPR007)
More sonic mayhem, this time from trumpeter Loz Speyer’s Inner Space band, a quintet in format but sounding far more numerous in its joyful, freewheeling sound. Two jazz portraits dominate this live set from Leipzig, an Innate Ornette that speaks for itself in its jaunty, harmolodic approach, and a Chimes For Grimes featuring bassist Larry Bartley that celebrates the enigmatic bass player Henry Grimes, who powered so much of 1960s free jazz. Bookending the set are the open-ended Changes and the delightfully bouncy Rhythm Changes Time. In contrast, I Weep For Your People As For Mine is a quiet lament for the recent horrors unleashed in Gaza.
Speyer himself is in exuberant form throughout, ably supported by saxophonists Dee Byrne and Xhosa Cole, members of the band since 2021, with drummer Gary Willcox a consistent powerhouse. Theirs is a collective endeavour, a shared delight in exploring new areas and discovering where the music might go. The jazz tradition stretching all the way back to New Orleans and then bebop is celebrated, but so too are the jazz paths yet to be investigated. A glorious set, to be enjoyed and admired.
Lucian Ban & Mat Maneri: Transylvanian Dance (ECM 6513053)
In rural contrast comes this set from Romanian pianist Lucian Ban and American violist Mat Maneri, who first played together in 2009. Since then, they have gone on to explore Transylvanian folk songs, notably the songs and dance tunes collected and transcribed by Bela Bartók a century ago: back in 2018, the duo collaborated with British saxophonist John Surman on a live set of those songs.
Here they take heed of Bartók’s observations about the “connecting tissue” linking the world’s musics, treating the raw material of eight traditional songs as springboards for arrangements that “capture the spirit of the original yet allow us to improvise and bring our own world to them”. It is a beautiful world they recreate, haunting, atmospheric, and timeless. Ban can be a percussive pianist at times, Maneri a strident string player, and they get to grips with each song with a heartfelt passion, investigating its strengths but aware also of its vulnerabilities. A fine set to get to know well.
Trygve Seim & Frode Haltli: Our Time (ECM 6558599)
In similar rural fashion comes this Norwegian duo set from saxophonist Trygve Seim and accordionist Frode Haltli, a collaboration that dates back to 2000. This set mixes improvised and composed material, a Ukrainian lullaby, a North Indian traditional piece and an interpretation of Stravinsky’s Les Cinq Doigts No 5 alongside three pieces from the duo and four freely improvised pieces. Frode remarks “We approach the written music, or traditionals, with a lot of liberty – oftentimes we’ll just use fragments of known material and go from there. Since we’re mainly improvising, we can’t know exactly where we might end up.”
As ever with Seim, the sound his breath makes as it passes through his tenor or soprano saxophone is as important as the finished note, giving him a particularly personal sonic tone, matched equally by the breathy accordion that, on Improvisation No 1, almost dances with glee before reverting to grunting accompaniment. In places, euphoric, elsewhere melancholic and dreamy, this is a set of pure beauty, of lyrical tunes and fluid conversations, and, above all, of striking, freewheeling originality.
Joachim Cooder: Dreamer’s Motel (Temple of Leaves)
Changing continents now for America, we find ourselves in the company of singer, mbira player, and drummer Joachim Cooder, son of the most famous Ry. Joachim has had a storied career, playing with the Buena Vista Social Club and touring and recording with Ali Farka Touré, Dr John and Mavis Staples, to name but some, and this is his fourth solo album. Father Ry obviously couldn’t keep away from the studio, for he plays guitar, mandolin or banjo on all seven tracks. All the songs are by Joachim in a style best described as Americana, fine acoustic folk with added horns, viola, bass, and organ. It’s all very gentle, very relaxing, and good fun, too.