It’s amazing that these musicians have never played together as a trio
before. However, they know each other well from various projects and all
three have been part of the London improv scene for a long time. Alex Ward
is known for playing both guitar and clarinet masterfully, in this trio he
limits himself to the clarinet (but he is also part of Thurston Moore’s
current London band, for example). The Canadian drummer Mike Gennaro first
appeared on the free jazz scene in 1996 with a solo album, a courageous
decision for a drummer, but it also testifies to his self-confidence. He
became better known through Port Huron Picnic (Spool, 2000), an
excellent trio with Max Gustafsson and guitarist Kurt Newman. Finally, John
Edwards completes something of a first class cuvee from the London jazz
vineyard: the bassist has been shaping the London improvisational music
landscape as one of its most active members since 1995, and his live
performances are always an event, especially because then you can see the
extraordinary ideas he comes up with when he uses the body of the bass as a
complete playing surface.
These three musicians don’t need any warm-up time on Activity.
From a standing start, they organize an intense, lively, back-and-forth,
sometimes pulsating interaction that makes use of some structural forms
such as culminations and retardations, but they unfold and shape them in
free communication to the exclusion of common formulas, conventions and
stereotypes. The fascination of their instrumental conversation stems
primarily from their openness: No melody, no meter dictates the direction
here – the discourse develops freely. The wordless, direct rhetoric of this
conversation, as unbound as it is coherent, also bears witness to a
lightning-like grasp and extraordinary intimacy, but does not spare
confrontational traits: Impulsive insistence, vehement counter-speech,
disruptive interjections are all part of the repertoire in a fundamental
and substantial way.
But none of this is arbitrary. As is usual in improvised music, the
instrumental techniques are extended, the sound spectrum is enriched with
noises. Edwards in particular always comes across as if it were not a
matter of playing the instrument, but of living with it, of having a kind
of conflict-laden, symbiotic relationship. Caution should also be exercised
with regard to the supposedly random disposition of this music created in
the moment: Everything proceeds with imaginative consistency, despite
aleatoric elements and great tension in some passages. The air is
deliberately let out of the improvisation, the focus is directed to the
most minimalist tones and the smallest shifts. The aim, however, is to
directly rekindle the fire of playing. Joy of playing, intensity,
authenticity – that’s what it’s all about. Then again, it was clear that
these masters would succeed in doing this brilliantly. A very recommended
album.
Activity is available as a CD and as a download.