The Babel label has announced details of three new releases all of which are infused with a strong free improv flavour.
Another common thread on two of the three releases is the presence of drummer Steve Davis the first finding the county Down-based player in collaboration once more with pianist Matthew Bourne, bassist Dave Kane and, less often heard, saxophonist Paul Dunmall on Mandalas in the Sky.
It’s the latest chapter in the improvising piano trio Bourne/Davis/Kane's association with Dunmall that stretches back to the early days of the long-running trio.
Recorded at the Birmingham Conservatoire in October 2013 Mandalas in the Sky consists of six improvisations and begins with ‘Finding It.’
Challenging but rewarding music each piece has a certain serenity to it embedded deep within the quartet’s opaque explorations. Different points of departure throw up new insights into the quartet’s method and for instance the more fractured rickety textures of strings and eventually saxophone on ‘Butterfly Song’ are more exposed and raw, the improvisation suddenly shrinking in scale.
Matthew Bourne finds additional strength on the powerful ‘Me We’ establishing an elastic dialogue with bassist Dave Kane easing in Dunmall at his most Coltranian. However, the most significant and successful piece is ‘Strange Time’ and not just because it is the longest, at just under 20 minutes, when Dunmall switches majestically to flute conjuring an entirely new mood spurred on by the engaged rhythmic accompaniment of Davis as the improvisation cascades into an ever more engrossing space.
Steve Davis’ trio with pianist Kris Davis and trumpeter Ralph Alessi is also due for release on 13 November.
Making their debut Sugar Blade was recorded at Michael Brorby’s Brooklyn studio Acoustic Recording last year. Davis had begun a connection with Kris Davis through saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock who the drummer had worked with in London. Kris had heard and liked her Davis namesake’s work with Bourne/Davis/Kane and the project took a step forward when the pianist suggested the drummer get in touch with Alessi who joined the pair in the studio during his brief visit to New York.
‘Cemetery Sleep’ is the catchiest of the pieces with piano acting like the bass, the offbeats like somebody jump-starting a broken down car, the trumpet smears and skating snare work from Davis providing slippery motion and a swaying undertow).
By contrast on the elegiac ‘Broken Light’ Alessi channels Ornette Coleman with a mood that Davis’ little bells and light touches builds up with the minimum of artifice. Like Davis’ other band Human, where there is also no bassist present, the architecture of the band has little structural scaffolding, the non-fixed ‘beat’ is transferred again on ‘Broken Light’ to Kris Davis’ left hand as the New York-based Canadian player proceeds to use both the low notes of the piano and its tinkling heights to somehow open up a melodic middle ground that Alessi fills with considerable feeling.
The third album in the batch, and set for a late-November release, documents a summit meeting of Black Top, vibist Orphy Robinson and pianist Pat Thomas’ improv project, with free-jazz saxophone icon Evan Parker on #2.
The release follows quickly on from the debut of Black Top last year.
All three albums are streaming now on the Babel site