By Charlie Watkins
Quartet feels like a good old-fashioned free jazz album, in the best
sense. Start to finish it is imbued with that 60s viscerality, creative and
raw, moving ever-forwards with driving force. The improvisations are fresh,
the group cohesion strong, and the identity sure. The three members of the
group are free jazz veterans – Darin Gray on bass, Janne Tuomi on drums, and
Alan Wilkinson on alto sax, bass clarinet and occasionally vocals – so
perhaps it is no surprise that they have produced such a strong debut outing
as a trio. But even so, it feels like the second they entered the studio,
something must have clicked: this sounds like a group who have been playing
together for years.
I must admit that I spent the first few tracks of this album wondering
whether I was missing something obvious. Where was the fourth member of this
‘quartet’? The album notes reveal that Jone Takamäki was meant to be joining
the trio for the live date and recording but was then unable to, sadly
passing away later the same year. Takamäki is still listed as the fourth
member, and the album feels like an ode to his boundless creativity and
range of expression. Fierce one moment, reflective the next, it is
everything Takamäki would have wanted.
The huge variety on this relatively concise recording is its great strength.
The first track is powerful, the second meditative, the third sparse (but
fierce). Each subsequent track has something that makes it distinctive; the
tracks could hardly be more different, and yet it feels completely cohesive
as a statement of what this group can do. It is an album that demonstrates
faithfulness to the free jazz tradition – even as it stretches it in
different directions – and as such feels like an ode to the music itself.
Wilkinson is, of course, a force to be reckoned with. There are some
incredibly guttural moments of bass clarinet, and the last couple of tracks,
when he starts to use his vocals, are the highlight of an already impressive
album. But the three musicians together achieve that holy grail of psychic
connection where they seem able to turn corners and move the music on with
almost simultaneous decision making, and Gray and Tuomi never fail to match
Wilkinson’s energy, bringing distinctive .
This record isn’t going to change the world, but I don’t think it can be
criticised for that: it was never what it set out to do. It is reminder that
originality does not always need to be the bar by which music is judged;
instead, as Hatka demonstrate, we are allowed to enjoy it just for being
really good.