The review of this one is late because I know of old that first reactions to Mike Gibbs are totally unsafe. In fact, as in the case of this set, one is usually initially disappointed, and then with repeated playings it all comes home and one accepts that it is the listener and not Mike who is at fault!
What would you expect from Mike after the best part of a couple of years out of the recording studios? This is a colossal surge forward in the development of his composing techniques with all the studio resources necessary made available to him for the first time by Gerry Bron. The result is a total success in that Mike’s charts and his mainly new solo team are produced in superbly defined sound which allows one the best access to some of the most potent music in jazz today. How satisfying to find Charlie Mariano moving into Mike’s field and acquitting himself so superbly on his three features. And Tony Coe in Mike’s showcase for him, Antique, using that rare combination of voluptuous sound and trenchant ideas – you rarely get one with the other – that make him so individual amongst tenor men.
But despite fine appearances by the other soloists as well, notably Chris Pyne on Tunnel, Philip Catherine on four tracks, and Steve Swallow, this has to be the composer’s album. The way in which his music is constructed layer over layer gives it a powerful sense of direction and evolvement. Listen, for instance to the powerful Blackgang, where the coming together of various elements builds up a kind of modern equivalent of a First Herd climax in the middle of the piece with a most extraordinary Afro rhythm complex.
Catherine is a marvellous find of virtuoso stature. He plays a glorious duet on acoustic guitar with Colin Walker’s electric cello on Undergrowth after a wonderfully compulsive and urgent opening, presumably between Swallow’s bass guitar and Walker on cello. This is overtly Indian in its rhythms despite the apparent absence of any Indian instruments except for Mariano’s nadaswaram (what the hell is that?). May I say finally that if the blood runs in your veins you should get much pleasure from one of the world’s most creative jazz musicians at a new peak.
Discography
To Lady Mac; In Retrospect; Nairam; Blackgang; Antique (19½ mins) – Undergrowth; Tunnel Of Love; Unfinished Sympathy (20 min)
Derek Watkins. Butch Hudson, John Huckridge, Ian Hawer, Kenny Wheeler, Henry Lowther (tpt/flg); Chris Pyne, Dave Horler, Bill Geldard (tbn); Charlie Mariano, Ray Warleigh, Stan Sulzmann, Alan Skidmore, Tony Coe, Duncan Lamont, Chris Taylor (reeds/woodwind); Philip Catherine (gtr); Mike Gibbs (keyboards); Steve Swallow (bs-gtr, elec-pno); Bob Moses (dm/perc); Jumma Santos (perc); strings led by Pat Halling; Colin Walker (elec-cello) on Undergrowth. Recorded 1974 & 1975.
(Bronze ILPS 9353 £2.99)
