By Gary Chapin
Fanfares and Freedom makes sense when you think of it—as the notes
suggest—as a jazz quartet paired with a brass band, the two in dialogue.
The brass band tradition has a strong but oddly retro-subversive role in
jazz history, and not just the early years. Many AACM masters, for example,
honed their chops playing in military bands. Witness Lester Bowie’s Brass
Fantasy, and Butch Morris’ conductions for explicit connections.
The titles of the pieces on Fanfares and Freedompoint to the
brass/New Orleans connections. We’ve got two fanfares, a stomp, and a
“toodle-oo.” Laura Jurd’s compositions center the brass element as a frame.
The first track, “Fanfare 1,” begins with a repetitive, rolling, sequence
from which Dunmall’s sopranino emerges like a brilliant spasm, cascading
like a flooded pachinko machine. It’s glorious. The second track begins in
a “March of the Wooden Soldiers” place, a twisted, humorous, light
travelog. The quartet comes in, led by Dunmall’s tenor, moving us from
black and white to color. “Chorale” starts with beautiful brass
chord/melodies, then has us walking scattered in the ruins, and brings us
to rest somewhere safe.
So far I’ve been distinguishing between the elements, but, inevitably,
they merge and a unified set of compositions and improvisations are the
result. Dunmall is kind of a monster, playing Paul Gonsalves to Jurd’s
Ellington. The brass group sometimes takes on a chamber vibe, but can (and
does) let rip. The trombone solos (I can’t tell which of the two
trombonists, Alex Paxton or Raphael Clarkson is playing) are wonderful,
raunchy—for example in the opening of the third track, “Onward Stomp,” a 13
minute masterpiece, where the ‘bone and the piano engage in mutual
malfeasance. Later the brass all engage in a jump scare
blatty-blat-blat
right at a Dunmall exaltation.
I’m always interested, as a listener and writer, in the relationship
between improvisation and composition. This is one of the few cases where
the composer, Jurd, is also explicitly interested in that tension! All of
that, though, is secondary to the fact that the record sounds
fantastic, fun, and intense.