TOTALLY FRIED UP
Paul Dunmall ten sax; John Adams gtr; Mark Sanders dms.
Recorded at Gateway Studios Kingston, 15 March 1998.
SLAMCD 235
Bar Code 5 028386 023524
TRACKS:
1 Totally fried up 2m 12s
2 Samskaras 15 40
3 The illuminated man 16 52
4 Capture a rapture 5 20
5 Homunculus 10 37
ReviewsJazz Journal, December 2000
This album begins explosively with the ideally named Totally Fried Up. This open-ended snippet gives way to a more diverse programme. Samskaras moves from a relaxed conversation between Dunmall and Sanders to a more irascible three way diatribe. The Illuminated Man varies its intensities in a more obvious manner and moves between blustering authority and sotto voce innuendo. Rapture travels a busily romantic route to freedom, while Homunculus captures the proportional balance implicit in the title.
Instrumental honours are shared three ways and all three musicians are listeners. Dunmall may be the leader but all three men contribute to the collective whole and deploy their tonal options astutely. We have before noted that Dunmall enjoys the latitude available when not using a bassist and this album is an ideal example of the way in which he exploits the situation. Barry McRae