GeorgeHaslam must be one of the unsung and underappreciated musicians in British jazz.Since 1989 he has worked tirelessly promoting his SLAM imprint and in doing sogiven musician's around the world the opportunity to release their music to awider audience than would have otherwise been possible, and in the interim itis perhaps easy to forget that Haslam is a formidable player in his own right.
Ifirst heard George with his quartet 'The Siger Band' that he led in the earlyeighties, who recorded a couple ofexcellent LPs for Tony Williams' Spotlite label which are have sadly notreappeared on CD. Since then Haslam has performed throughout the world withmusicians of all persuasions looking for that all elusive 'musical connection',and frequently finding it in the most unusualplaces.
Onesuch occasion was the Raahen Rantajatsit (Jazz On The Beach) Festival inFinland, and captures the meeting Haslam and Paul Rutherford with the SamuliMikkonen Trio. The music is finally making an appearance some 14 years afterbeing recorded, but rather than lamenting the fact that is has remained in thevaults for so long, we should be grateful for it appearing atall.
Performedas one continuous improvisation, '53 Minutes' is exactly that, although the CDis cleverly broken down with 15 separate markers that Haslam has inserted at certain points in the performance where the music changes, although as thesaxophonist says in his liner notes the music benefits from, and indeed onlymakes sense when listened to as a whole.
Theperformance is impressive, and listened to carefully depicts quite graphicallythe events on stage that night when five musicians meet and play together forthe first time. From the opening segment where the trio introduce themselves, tothe point where the guests enter the conversation and pleasantries are exchanged.As the improvisation progresses it is heard how everyone starts to feel morecomfortable and relaxed and the music moves up a gear. Mikkonen's Trio ifrooted in more straight ahead playing situations react and interact with Rutherford and Haslam with ideas and conversation become more detailed and indepth.
Thereis much common ground to be discovered, and with trombonist Paul Rutherfordperhaps playing in a more abstract manor that his colleagues his knowledge anduse of the blues ensure that all have a handle on proceedings, and that isperhaps where George Haslam's baritone is wielded to best effect, acting as acommentator and mediator and helping to keep dialogue flowing with his grufflines that float between abstraction and a more structured form that preventsdialects from clashing.
Bythe concluding segment of the disc we have been taken on a musical conversationthat embraces cultural and musical differences, bring all together in anextended piece that, like a meeting between old and new friends, has humour,depth and warmth in abundance. Paul Rutherford is greatly missed, and it isgreat to hear him once again on this excellentrelease.
Reviewedby Nick Lea http://jazzviewscdreviews.weebly.com/
A rumbling of piano chords deliversRaahe '99, a recently unearthed meeting between British heavyweights Paul Rutherford and George Haslam and Finland's Samuli Mikkonen Trio, a concert that might forever have existed only as a flickering memory of those who attended the Raahen Rantajatsit festival in July of 1999. This month marks five years since Rutherford's passing, and it's hard to imagine a posthumous offering that's more vital, morepresent,than Rutherford's music. He is among those who have unlocked immortality.
Raahe's beyond one man, though, however decorated. It's a writhing, twisting worm of a performance, a collective contortion that certainly moves as though it's a single creature. Separated into 15 tracks (with some bizarrely descriptive titles like "Bass prominent, taragato subsides, quintet re-assembles with a nod towards swing before the final coda"), the album unwinds as an unbroken 53-minute thread, an almost thematic program of improvisation that morphs from movement to movement as its elements fluctuate and rearrange. Despite its freely improvised nature, this is a thread pulled from the fabric of the jazz idiom, and rather than manifesting as out-and-out free jazz ruckus, the music's changing directions unfold in a linear, logical manner as players enter and exit, their ears tuned as much toward melody as they are to dynamism and turmoil.
Haslam's baritone sax and Rutherford's trombone make for an imposing frontline. Mikkonen and his crew are an equal match. Mikkonen can play out, but he's not a very abstract player, and he's never far removed from a melancholy sort of jazz lyricism. He's just as inclined to take the lead has he is to slip into the rhythmic framework, the true strength of the Finnish trio. There are times when drummer Mika Kallio tosses in some incredible syncopated beats, or bassist Uffe Krokfors locks into a hypnotic motif, and you can feel the whole group tighten in a driving, exciting way that serves to remind that a well-stated rhythm is hardly the bane of "free" improvisation.
Raahe ‘99is a completely satisfying piece of music, and a damn lucky find. It's painful to think that a great capture like this might have been lost for good, spirited away along with one of its creators. Mr. Rutherford is greatly missed, but lives on in a most profound way through performances with peers like those onRaahe, searching musicians who bring out the best in each other.
ByDaniel Sorrells http://freejazz-stef.blogspot.com.ar/2012/08/paul-rutherford-george-haslam-with.html
Nice idea, retrieving this 1999 concert extrapolated from a 2-day event in Raahe, a small town situated in Finland's Gulf of Bothnia. The forward tandem of Rutherford (trombone) and Haslam (baritone sax, tarogato) is supported, complemented and only mildly contrasted by pianist Mikkonen, bassist Ulf Krokfors and drummer Mika Kallio (curiously, a namesake of a rather known Finnish bike rider). For starters, the recording quality is outstanding, a feature that allows the listener to discern and enjoy the various instrumental behaviors over the interplay's general streaming. This approach to the act of listening to jazz should never be overlooked: the opportunity to maintain a focus on the separate sources while being affected by the music's tensions, releases and even contradictions lies at the basis of a better action — in our individual systems — of a series of implicit connections defining the reaction to any given record.
The communication between the participants is somewhat relaxed, definitely not burning with fury. Unsurprisingly, Rutherford and Haslam appear to be in charge of the situation. The former's garrulous flights of imagination, incisive forthrightness and unmistakably superior timbre remind us of what a knowledgeable soloist he was; the latter's near-improbable blend of melodic peacefulness and stimulating swiftness defines perhaps the album's salient moments, during which this writer forgot about the "what" and started taking into account the mere upshot of the interconnecting phrases, abandoning his chair to walk around the room in a semi-comfortable frame of mind. The three-headed counterpart is brilliantly restrained and supportive of the masters through the full set. Mikkonen's pianism reveals a good degree of insightfulness while remaining more or less confined inside the dominion of "unobtrusive shading versus clever counterpoint". Krokfors and Kallio sail across linear designs and perturbed currents with considerable discretion and refinement, ultimately constituting a firm ground for the entire sonic edifice to expand.
Massimo Ricci http://www.squidsear.com/cgi-bin/news/newsView.cgi?newsID=1483
UNEARTHED GEM
The English pairing of trombonist Paul Rutherford
and baritone saxophonist George Haslam would
undoubtedly have struggled to make themselves
understood in the fiendishly intractable Finnish
tongue. But such is the universal language of jazz
that they had no problems communicating with
pianist Samuli Mikkonen's trio with bassist Ulf
Krokfors and drummer Mika Kallio on their first
meeting at the Raahen Rantajatsit Festival in Finland
in 1999. Rutherford died five years ago this month,
making this tribute recording a welcome find. While
the trombonist may be best known for his staggering
solo records, he also contributed positively to any
number of free and structured situations. This
53-minute freely extemporized set with its freebop
approach neatly encapsulates both styles.
Rutherford mixes hums, gurgles and buzzes
with brassy rumbustiousness, demonstrating a
fantastic and unpredictable range of expression.
Even when at his most broodily lyrical, he undercuts
it by interspersing some frog-like croaks. Haslam
makes impassioned baritone statements, but also
cuts an alternately angular and droning line on
tarogato. Mikkonen's hammered tremolos ratchet
up the intensity and he proves himself a probing
accompanist, his jabbing motifs serving to jostle and
realign the collective trajectory. Neither drums nor
bass solo but provide solid propulsion and apposite,
although slightly over amplified, coloration.
The quintet settled upon a democratic ethos,
which sees the lead switching imperceptibly around
the group. In the liners, Haslam helpfully demarcates
the continuous performance into 15 tracks, which
helps signpost some of the more potent passages,
such as a warm and honeyed duet between the
horns and a wonderful trombone solo supported by
Mikkonen's knotty comping. While the rhythm
section sound most comfortable with a definite
pulse, some of the strongest sections come when
there is tension between different rates of pulsation,
as when Mikkonen posits measured choppy chords
against fidgety uptempo drums. Borne of shared
experience, the two horns' bravura interactions are
one of the assets of this performance.
John Sharpe
THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | August 2012
D'un côté : un trio finlandais (Samuli Mikkonen : piano / Ulf Krofors : contrebasse / Mika Kallio : batterie). De l'autre : deux vieilles connaissances (Paul Rutherford, George Haslam). Le 31 juillet 1999, tous se retrouvent au festival Jazz on the Beach de Raahen (Finlande). Les bandes réapparaitront douze ans plus tard. Elles sont aujourd'hui éditées par Slam, le label du saxophoniste.
En une suite improvisée de cinquante-trois minutes, souffleurs et section rythmique ne perdent jamais le fil d'une improvisation emportée. Différentes structures vont se succéder puis se retrouver. Le trio servira de tremplin aux improvisations à venir puis s'engouffrera dans quelque obstiné riff du saxophoniste. Lequel saxophoniste ne cédera rien de son lyrisme habituel, laissant au tromboniste le soin d'arpenter des travées infiniment plus audacieuses. D'un Haslam aux phrasés secs et vibrants, d'un Rutheford aux lignes relâchées et d'un trio ravi de l'aubaine, on n'écrira que l'essentiel : éclat, intensité, connivence, complicité.
TRANSLATION:
On one side: the Finnish Trio (Samuli Mikkonen piano, Ulf Krofors bass, Mika Kallio drums). The other: two old friends (Paul Rutherford, George Haslam). July 31, 1999, all are at the Jazz Festival on the Beach Raahen (Finland). The recording reappears twelve years later. They are now published by Slam, the saxophonist's label.
In a fifty-three minutes improvisation, the horns and rhythm section never lose track of improvisation carried. Different structures will succeed and meet. The trio will serve as a springboard for improvisation to come and will rush in some stubborn riff saxophonist. Which saxophonist not assign any of its usual lyricism, leaving the task of surveying trombonist infinitely bolder spans. On Haslam to dry phrasing and vibrant, a Rutherford released the lines and a trio delighted the deal, we will write that much: brightness, intensity, connivance, complicity.
Luc Bouquet http://grisli.canalblog.com/archives/2013/04/24/26947458.html
FINLAND
Nyt en muista tarkkaan, mitkä ovat Suomen "vuoden jazzlevy"-kriteerit, mutta tässä nyt on sellainen platta, joka on ainakin yhtä hyvä kuin edelliset voittajat.
Julkaisuaikaa ei levyssä lue, mutta äänitys on tehty Raahen rantajatseilla 1999 livenä. Tähän nähden ääni on aivan loistavan tarkka.
Varsinaisia sävellyksiä ei ole, vaan musiikki menee niin kuin henki kuljettaa, 53 minuuttia putkeen. TuottajaHaslam on ystävällisesti merkinnyt levyn osiin, joten säätimellä on helppo soittaa suosimiaan osia uudellen.
Mikkosen trio oli kolmevuotias levyä tehtäessä, joten yhteissoitto sujui kuin leikiten. Sattumana kai voi pitää sitä, että brittiläiset vierailijat ovat niin samanhenkisiä, tai sitten siitä oli tullut tieto. Soitto etenee uskomattoman vaivattomasti, kuin sitä olisi pitkäänkin harjoiteltu. Tuolloin vielä nuoret Mikkonen ja Kallio olivat jo saaneet mainetta taidoillaan ja ovat tässä parhaimmillaan. Keski-ikäisemmät konkarit tuntuvat todella innostuvan tilaisuudesta.
Musiikki on monipuolista vapaata freejatsia, mutta enemmän kauniita osia kuin rämisevää voimafreeta. Soolot, duetot ja kollektiivinen improvisaatio vuorottelevat sujuvasti, niin kuin miehet lukisivat nuottipartituuria. Levy on omistettu v.2007 kuolleelle pasunisti Rutherfordille, joka oli v.1999 elämänsä kunnossa. Haslam vaihtelee barskan ja sopraanoaltolta kuulostavantarogatonvälillä ja osaa käyttää molempia niiden erilaisen äänesluonteen mukaisesti.
Paitsi kunnianosoituksena Rutherfordille, toimii levy myös loistavana esitteenä Raahen jazzfestivaalista, joka on vuodesta toiseen säilyttänyt huipputasonsa modernin jazzin esittelijänä.
Olli Ervasti http://webmagx.jazzrytmit.com/index.php/kaikki-arvostelut/3547-paul-rutherford-and-george-haslam-with-the-samuli-mikkonen-trio
TRANSLATION
Now, I do not remember exactly what the Finnish "the jazz album" criteria, but this is now a SETTING THE TABLE, which is at least as good as the previous winners. Release Time can not read the disc, but the recording is made Raahe rantajatseilla 1999 live. So over the sound is just great precision.
The actual compositions are not, but the music goes so than life carries, 53 minutes into the tube. Producer Haslam has kindly meant parts of the disc, so the controller is easy to play suosimiaan components for reuse.
Mikkonen trio was three years old when the disc, so the ensemble went like a breeze. Coincidentally, I guess it can be considered that British visitors are so like-minded, and then it had become a fact. Call is proceeding incredibly easy, as it should be practiced in a long time. At the time, still young Mikkonen and Kallio had already gained a reputation for his skills, and are best here. Central ikäisemmät veterans seem to really get excited about this opportunity.
The music is varied freejatsia free, but the more beautiful parts of the brassy voimafreeta. Solos, duets and collective improvisation turns smoothly, as if the men would read nuottipartituuria. The album is dedicated v.2007 dead trombonist Rutherford, who was v.1999 his life in order. Haslam varies barskan and sopraanoaltolta sounding tarogaton between the two and how to use them in accordance with the different äänesluonteen.
Except for a tribute to Rutherford, the disc is also a brilliant jazz festival brochure Raahe, which has been continuously maintained a high level of modern jazz as rapporteur.
Morning Star Tuesday 10 July 2012
Raahe '99 SLAM CD
Paul Rutherford and George Haslam
Secret recordings made on a Finnish beach have resurfaced
Two British jazz prophets better known in Finland than in their own country?
Unheralded and largely unknown beyond their free improv admirers, George Haslam, Preston-born baritone saxophonist and introducer and master of the Hungarian tarogato horn into jazz, and Greenwich-born trombonist Paul Rutherford have both created canons of enormous stature and originality.
Rutherford was introduced to the saxophone by his elder brother, switched to trombone and learned his craft during his two years of national service in the RAF where he met fellow jazz free spirits John Stevens and Trevor Watts.
He performed and recorded free music from the off and spent a musical lifetime at his slides in uniquely avant garde contexts, becoming one of the genuine jazz greats of its century of history.
Haslam has been excelling in free jazz settings since the '60 s but without similar opportunities to record until the '80s, when he set up his own SLAM label and cut some powerful albums, in particular a pair of duo sessions with the US pianist Mal Waldron.
Rutherford and Haslam both travelled restlessly to find appreciative listeners and companions, Rutherford throughout Europe and the US, Haslam much further afield, particularly in Latin America.
He performed in Mexico, led the first British jazz ensemble to play in Cuba and established a musical base in Argentina, recording with some powerful local musicians including the compelling 2006 album September Spring.
Long before Rutherford died in 2007, the two veterans had established a formidable horn partnership and had shared notes on several SLAM albums.
Rutherford became renowned as a solo trombonist - his solo album for the Emanem label 'The Gentle Harm of the Bourgeoisie' is a free jazz classic unlikely to ever be equalled.
But he and Haslam were kindred spirits and mutual forces of inspiration, as evinced by the duo album '1989 and All That' recorded at the Holywell Room in Oxford, a venue of near-perfect jazz acoustics which brought out the musical uniqueness of both artistes in a larger group format.
The album 'Raahe 99' is a memorial to Rutherford, recorded in July 1999 in Finland at a "jazz on the beach" festival. Rutherford and Haslam had no idea that the performance had been recorded, and its 53 minutes only emerged some 12 years after the event.
Rutherford had not met pianist Samuli Mikkonon, bassist Ulf Krokfors and drummer Mika Kallio before the concert, so it was an event of sheet spontaneity.
Mikkonen's ominously beautiful phrases which commence the first movement with Kallio's deep drum-struck sounds certainly do not presage a beach party.
When the horns enter there are sensations of any angry, vituperative sea followed by a harrowing baritone chorus with the trio's empathy of strangers transforming to a union of fresh companions.
After a horn interchange there is the genius of Rutherford's London slides and multiphonics, as if a complete voice box has slipped down inside his instrument.
Nobody in jazz ever played a trombone like Rutherford. The Finns were hearing it here on their blessed beach, and when Haslam's deep baritone returns it is as if he is responding not to a summons but an oratory.
The second movement opens with Krokfor's emphatic bass and Mikkonen's assured and splashing surf-like solo, more horn sparring and an astonishing passage of Rutherford wit, artistry and glory which makes you marvel how far the trombone has travelled since those early 20th century Crescent City days, when the tailgate slidemen played their trombones from the backs of parading wagons.
It leads into a sequence of profound baritone beauty, where Haslam's sound recalls the Ellingtonian wonders of baritonist Harry Carney's rhapsodic recorded performance of 1947, Sono.
In the third movement Haslam's terse and worrisome taragato enters, and Rutherford's trombone howls beside it as if two aging British griots are marking something about the millennium to come on that Finland beach below the almost Arctic sky - another uncanny leap for a music which has its provenances where the Mississippi delta pours out into the Caribbean Sea.
Yet with such a fusion of sound and intention all sounds of history and the present harmonise.
What is remarkable about this record is that not a note is superfluous or egotistic - five men meet on a faraway beach, make wondrous music and cease, not knowing that their sounds are being captured, then they travel on and make more.
Then one of them dies and is brilliantly remembered forever alongside his companions.
Such is jazz, such is life.
Chris Searle
TRANSLATIONAmong the many engravings published bySlam Productions this rediscovery
of a concert held in Finland byGeorge HaslamandPaul Rutherfordalong with the trio of pianist
Samuli Mikkonenhas a particular value, in terms of musical and historical.It is in fact dedicated
to the trombonist Paul Rutherford, who unfortunately died, here the author of a really remarkable
performance.The five, surprisingly, form a very close-knit group that celebrates the best in
improvisation.The spark between the two English and Finnish rhythmic bursts inserting a compact
suite where everyone has a way of revealing his personality without destroying the unity of purpose
that is from beginning to end, witnessing the professionalism and also the size human musicians
involved.For the spirit and understanding between the musicians this gig, finally on disc, has all the
cards in order to align with other live recordings have become famous.Mikkonen is a pianist who
has recorded withECMand that you let go and almost romantic moments, but plays along and gets
involved by the powerful voice of the baritone sax and trombone Haslam kaleidoscopic Rutherford,
who, as always, pulls out any possible effects from his instrument.The two rhythms,Ulf Krofkorson
bass andMika Kallio with whom the pianist has worked for some time, busy themselves with a
pulse present, especially the drummer with its constant changes of time gives a strong boost to the
group and the liveliness of the music .More than one commented so hard just to be heard, because
it is a great example of European jazz dawned on stage when the festivalJazz on theBeach in Finland,
where everything is perfect, the interaction between the musicians to content.
ORIGINAL ITALIAN
Fra le tante incisioni pubblicate dallaSlam Productions questa riscoperta di un concerto tenuto in Finladia
daGeorge HaslamePaul Rutherfordinsieme al trio del pianistaSamuli Mikkonenha un valore particolare,
dal punto di vista musicale e storico. È dedicato infatti al trombonista Paul Rutherford, purtroppo scomparso,
qui autore di una performance proprio notevole. I cinque, a sorpresa, formano un gruppo molto affiatato
che celebra l´improvvisazione nel modo migliore. La scintilla fra i due inglesi e la ritmica finlandese scoppia
innestando una suite compatta in cui ognuno ha modo di rivelare la propria personalità senza per questo
distruggere l´unità di intenti che appare dall´inizio alla fine, a testimonianza della professionalità ed anche
della grandezza umana dei musicisti coinvolti. Per lo spirito e l´intesa fra i musicisti questo concerto, finalmente
su disco, ha tutte le carte in regola per allinearsi ad altre incisioni live divenute famose. Mikkonen è un pianista
che ha inciso con laECMe che si lascia andare a momenti quasi romantici, ma sta al gioco ed si lascia coinvolgere
dalla possente voce del sax baritono di Haslam e dal trombone caleidoscoipo di Rutherford, il quale, come
sempre, tira fuori tutti gli effetti possibili dal suo strumento. I due ritmi,Ulf Krofkorsal contrabbasso e Mika Kallio con
cui il pianista lavora da tempo, si danno da fare con una pulsazione presente, specie il batterista che con i suoi
continui cambiamenti di tempo dà un forte impulso al gruppo ed alla vivacità della musica. Più che commentato un
disco cosí va ascoltato e basta, perchè è un esempio grandissimo di jazz europeo spuntato per caso sul palcoscenico
del festivalJazz on theBeachin Finlandia, in cui tutto è perfetto, dall´interazione fra i musicisti ai contenuti.
Vittorio Lo Conte http://www.musiczoom.it/?p=7255
PAUL RUTHERFORD & GEORGE HASLAM With SAMULI MIKKONEN TRIO - Raahe
'89: For Paul Rutherford (Slam 328; UK) Paul Rutherford on trombone,
George Haslam on bari sax & tarogato, Samuli Mikkonen on piano, Ulf
Krokfors on double bass and Mika Kallio on drums. Paul Rutherford had
a singular voice on his trusty trombone and was one of the finest
musicians to emerge from the European jazz scene. His passing in 2007
was a great loss to us all so finding unreleased music from him and
his occasional collaborator is a rare treat. This disc was recorded
live in Finland in July of 1999 with Rutherford and Haslam backed by
a fine Finnish rhythm team. Bassist Ulf Krokfors has worked with
Raoul Bjorkenheim in Krakatau, as well as with Juhani Aaltonen, Iro
Haarla and Jarmo Savolainen. Their drummer, Mika Kallio, has a number
of discs out with saxist Mikko Innanen and other Finnish players.
This disc features one 53 minute piece which is entirely
improvised by the quintet. It is superbly recorded, completely
focused and often explosive. Rutherford takes an incredible, long,
diverse solo with some most impressive interplay from the piano, bass
and drums who flow in and out and shift directions organically.
Towards the end of Paul's solo, George enters on bari sax adding more
strong harmonies and intricate interplay until his solo takes over
and calms the vibe down. The piano trio emerges in the next section
with a powerful solo from Mr. Mikkonen's piano leading the way.
Eventually the sax and trombone re-enter and swirl around one another
in robust waves. The entire disc has a joyous, uplifting vibe and is
exciting and engaging from the beginning until the end. - Bruce Lee
Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery
Rutherford, Paul & George Haslam with the Samuli Mikkonen Trio:Raahe '99(Slam)
A recently discovered live recording of Rutherford and Haslam with the
Samuli Mikkonen Trio at Raahe Festival, July 1999, a concert of non-stop
improvisation and a fitting tribute to the trombonist's memory. Squidco
Questo CD pubblicato dalla etichetta britannica Slam, è una splendida esemplificazione della teoria per la quale molta della musica improvvisata contemporanea possegga un immediato "bollino" di qualità quando, accanto al protagonista della performance (chiunque esso sia), troviamo una sezione ritmica nordica.
In più, il CD, rappresenta un documento davvero prezioso capace di testimoniare ancora una volta, se ve ne fosse il bisogno, l'estrema classe di un musicista troppo spesso dimenticato dalle cronache che risponde al nome di Paul Rutherford, trombonista inglese scomparso nel 2007, da molti considerato uno dei più grandi improvvisatori storici della musica moderna.
Registrato durante il festival "Jazz on the Beach" di Raahen Rantajatsit in Finlandia il 31 luglio 1999, il disco testimonia una performance di estrema tensione, ricca di sound poderoso e compatto, giocato da due primattori inglesi (l'altro non ancora citato è George Haslam, fondatore dell'etichetta e baritonista fra i più apprezzati di molti decenni di British Jazz) e da un reattivo e creativo trio finlandese formato dal pianista Samuli Mikkonen, dal contrabbassista Ulf Krokfors e dal batterista Mika Kallio.
Quasi seguendo il filo di un percorso didattico tout-court, Haslam nella post-produzione del lavoro, ha scelto intelligentemente di indicare la strada della lunga suite di cinquantatre minuti, segnalando nello score del programma i vari consequenziali momenti attraversati dal set dal vivo e intitolando i quindici momenti dell'esibizione esattamente con il nome di ciò che stava avvenendo sul palco. Ergo, fra "piano trio," introduzioni baritonistiche, soli di trombone, movimenti in trio che preludono all'intervento del trombone e via di conserva, l'ascoltatore anche neofita riesce a essere accompagnato passo a passo in una lunga suite d'improvvisazione collettiva, capace di tramettere l'estrema energia di un set assolutamente variegato, intelligentemente suddiviso in parti ruvide e in altre di moderato lirismo.
Una gran performance, recuperata da Haslam specialmente per omaggiare lo straordinaria talento creativo di un Rutherford in serata di grazia, che conferma la grande importanza dell'arte dell'improvvisazione.
Vittorio Albani http://italia.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=809
TRANSLATION:
This CD released by British label Slam, and a splendid example of the theory that much of contemporary improvised music possesses an immediate "seal" of quality when, next to the star of the performance (whoever he is), we find a rhythm section Nordic.
In addition, the CD, is a very valuable document which can show once again, if there was a need, the very class of musician too often forgotten by the world press by the name of Paul Rutherford, British trombonist who died in 2007 , widely regarded as one of the greatest improvisers in modern music history.
Recorded during the festival "Jazz on the Beach" Raahen Rantajatsit in Finland July 31, 1999, the record shows a performance of extreme tension, compact, powerful and rich sound, played by two primattori English (the other is not mentioned yet is George Haslam, founder of the label and baritonista of the most popular of many decades of British Jazz) and a responsive and creative trio formed by Finnish pianist Samuli Mikkonen, bassist Ulf Krokfors and drummer Mika Kallio.
Almost following the thread of a trail tout-court, Haslam in post-production work, has wisely chosen to show the way of the long suite of fifty-three minutes, the score indicating the various consequential moments of the program through which the live set and naming fifteen times the exhibition exactly as what was happening on stage.Ergo, between "piano trio," baritonistiche introductions, trombone solos, a trio movements which preceded the intervention of the trombone, and so keeps the neophyte listener can also be accompanied step by step in a long suite of collective improvisation capable of tramettere the extreme energy of a set quite varied, cleverly divided into parts rough and others of moderate lyricism.
A great performance, recovered by Haslam especially to honor the extraordinary creative talents of Rutherford in the evening of grace, which confirms the great importance of the art of improvisation.
