In June the release of pianist Marilyn Crispell and Gary Peacock’s album together, Azure (ECM), was a clear reminder should one have been needed, that the duo format is as robust a setting for improvised music as any configuration of players, Crispell’s tune ‘Waltz After David M’ just beautifully conceived within a loose post-bebop piano timeline that seemed to journey back to Bill Evans but also go some way to reveal a significant compositional voice at play. The intertwining and space both players managed to create within the improvised framework was a revelation and reinforced the striking levels of intimacy a duo can achieve, a format that once more comes into play on a new album, again featuring Crispell, called Parallel Moments (Babel), the 66-year-old Philadelphia-born improviser best known for her work in her early career with Anthony Braxton, this time in duo with Scottish saxophonist Raymond MacDonald. 
A saxophonist, composer and academic MacDonald is known for his work with Günter ‘Baby’ Sommer, co-leading the George Burt-Raymond MacDonald Quartet, and as a leading light on the Scottish improvising scene, as well as for his work as a professor of music psychology and improvisation at Glasgow Caledonian University.
Ahead of the release of Parallel Moments, to be released on 13 January, the pair return to the Vortex in London to perform a concert on Friday 6 December. Before that Crispell will also perform solo at the GIO Fest in the CCA, Glasgow, on 28 November, and in duo with Maggie Nichols the next day.
Marilyn Crispell, above, and the cover of Parallel Moments