Lol Cohill/Howard RileyDuology (SLAMCD 249)
Jazz Views July 2003, Nick Lea A meeting of musical minds in what appears to be the first full CD recording of the pair, although they have played together many times over the last quarter of a century; and therein lies the crux of this CD. A collaboration that shows just how far both men have travelled in that time span, and yet how atuned they are to each others playing. Riley has in some respects has taken a more circuitous route from composition based playing to finding his way to free improvisation, and recently a return back to more structured environments. However, if variety is indeed the spice of life, the pianist shows every intent of keeping a foot firmly in both camps and exploring the grey areas in between, whilst keeping his debt and admiration to Thelonious Monk very much in the mix. Lol is Lol, and plays himself. If perhaps the changes and methods employed by the saxophonist over the years seem less dramatic, he has a recorded body of work that is remarkable in its consistency and sheer variety of contexts in which the Coxhill sound has been not just accepted but readily embraced. Both players have a long history and wealth of experience as solo players, and it is with this very much in mind they approach the music on this disc. Not so much a musical dialogue, but two separate monologues that cross paths and occasionally meet in the most unexpected places. Split into two distinct halves, the first seven improvisations were recorded at a private session in the afternoon prior to the gig, and tracks 8 to 12 recorded at the evening performance, the music follows a logical path and sequence from one session to the next. On this outing it is perhaps Riley who follows the straighter path, with the soprano exploring the range and timbres of the horn, and the natural acoustics of the room, and this is demonstrated on the longer ‘live’ pieces recorded at the evening session. Both ‘Two Timing’ and ‘Hearing Is Believing’, at 17 minute and 11 minutes respectively, allow the interplay to develop over a longer time span without ever meandering, whilst the shorter cuts ranging between 3 and 7 minutes certainly help to focus the mind. A fascinating glimpse into the creative processes of two master musicians. Reviewed by Nick Lea
Lol Cohill/Howard Riley Duology (Slam)
Saxophone/piano duets tend to draw contemporary jazz musicians toward free improvisation, whatever their usual allegiances; otherwise, the music can take on a kind of frozen-smile freneticism in the effort to maintain swing without a rhythm section. These two sets, fromopposite sides of the Atlantic, approach thequestion in quite similar ways, though David Liebman, a highly virtuosic, former Miles Davis postbop saxophonist, stays closer to jazz orthodoxy. His double album includes several standards, while the disc form UK musicians Howard Riley and Lol Coxhill, recorded live in Oxford, is improvised from scratch.
Liebman is a superb saxophonist. In bigger ensembles, his work demonstrates comparable resourcefulness to Michael Brecker’s, and can be more adventurously conceived, too. With only the subtle but pensive and ascetic Copland for company, he is more circumspect. Here, his approach often mingles the serpentine impressionism of Wayne Shorter with the emotional, vocalized sounds of Albert Ayler.
The music inhabits something of a twilight world. But the ways in which it transforms imperceptibly from free exchange into the shapes of familiar themes like Maiden Voyage and John Coltrane’s Impressions are absorbing. And Liebman’s unaccompanied overture to Lester Leaps In is an off-beat delight.
Lol Coxhill can’t get around as many hairpin turns as Liebman, or steer quite so straight a course through a forest of of free-jazz and modal playing. But the British saxophonist’s free-falling, casually pitched ruminations and idiosyncratic adaptations of the sax soundscape of Even Parker sound like no other’s – and the experienced and musically erudite Howard Riley on piano is a precise, meticulous and stimulating counterweight to him. This makes for a much more challenging aural experience than the Liebman/Copland album.
Coxhill’s long, quavering sounds and indiffernce to tonal centres sound totally uncompromising against the fixed pitches of the piano. When Riley’s dense clusters of notes are pitted against Coxhill’s squawks and sustained falsettos, the result is an intriguing, spontaneous encounter. The pianist makes only sidelong references to swing and regular jazz phrasing, which fall into minimal proddings for the saxophonist to spookily surface, like a snake rising from a basket, then reappear as powerful free vamps.
John Fordham
The Guardian, 7 March 2003
Jazz Review, June 2003
Duology: Duets March 2003
The bromide that a recording of improvised music rewards committed listening applies much more than usual to this first full album of duets by pianist Howard Riley and soprano saxophonist Lol Coxhill, particularly the part about commitment. This latter aspect is surprising; but that’s based on the presumption that Coxhill’s joviality and Riley’s jazz chops would be more in the foreground. Instead, the bald soprano man favours the astringent, even dour facet of his playing, while Riley often digs into the pre-Cage mid-century classicism that is a vital part of his sensibility. The resulting music often lingers on the brink of a cathartic pay-off; strangely, the longer it does, the less it seems necessary for it to go anywhere else.
Perhaps this related to the title of the first piece, "Breaking the Habit". There remains in many quarters an imperative for a readily detectable emotional arc in an improvisation. That seems to be of little concern to Riley and Coxhill, who veer and careen each other without apparent regard of their ultimate destination; yet, in their rigorous responses to the unfolding music, whatever circling or backtracking ensues has a clearly conveyed purpose. Much of this is attributable to their unerring sense of pitch; even when the material is ostensibly atonal, their confluence in this regard is remarkable. In short order, these assets give them sufficient credibility to pull off well-worn gambits like long notes over tremolo without sophomoric turgidity.
To these ends, the frontloading of seven pieces, each running under five minutes and recorded the afternoon prior to the gig that fills out the CD, makes great sense. Both in duration and scope, they give the listener crisp summaries of many of the types of rugged terrain Riley and Coxhill explore in the longer concert improvisations. Still, Duology is a trek that requires effort and occasional patience, one that nevertheless leaves the listener with a gratifying sense of accomplishment.
Bill Shoemaker
