This is a gorgeous record. Alan’s extrovert élan always satisfies, but this CD reveals the gentler, intensely lyrical side of his playing. He swings at even the quietest tempo, but for the majority of this hour-plus the accent is on delicately probing exploration and melodic invention.
It’s good to hear Alan’s clarinet featured so generously; even more welcome is the magnificent outing for bass clarinet on Javanette, which I think to be the album’s most moving performance. Hardly less lovely is Alan’s composition Criss, a profoundly affecting tribute from one altoist to another and an eloquent reminder of Sonny Criss’s prodigious and still underrated gifts. The Peacocks holds its own not only with the original Getz-Rowles version on CBS but the sublime reading Stan effected with Bill Evans on a 1974 Jazz Door date. Nobody Else But Me is also the title track of a newly discovered and utterly stunning Getz session from 1964 just released on Verve; once again, Mr Barnes holds his own with the master. David Newton is an ideal partner, offering a nigh-perfect amalgam of strength, sensitivity, wit and apposite prompting.
In 1/94’s issue, Alan declared ‘This constant search for innovation is a bit negative. What’s wrong with just being good?’ Amen to that; and this CD is an unimprovable endorsement of those wise words. It is also, that remark notwithstanding, fresh and original, and graced by an excellent sleeve note by Peter Vacher.
Discography
’Round Midnight; Blues In Thirds; Batida Differente; Poor Butterfly; I’m Just A Lucky So And So; Lament For Javanette/Lull At Dawn; Waltz For Sonny Criss; Walkin’ Shoes; The Peacocks; Nobody Else But Me; Cottontail (64.46)
Alan Barnes (as, ts, cl, bcl), David Newton (p). London, December 7, 1993.
(Fret FJCD 105)
