John Fordham The Guardian Friday January 5, 2007
One of John Surman's sax-playing descendents in Britain is Paul Dunmall, a similarly robust and heavy-hitting performer who has gone on to concentrate largely on free improvisation (Evan Parker also inspires him) without sacrificing a rigorous melodic logic, a sparing lyricism and the technique to drop in on bebop occasionally.
This is a four-way, all-improvised live jam on two long tunes, with Dunmall plus guitarist Philip Gibbs, bass virtuoso Paul Rogers and American percussionist Hamid Drake. Growls and squawks greeted by drum flurries, scratchy Arco bass noises and throttled Derek Bailey-like guitar chords all indicate a pure-improv agenda.
But the players snap in and out of a surging free swing at the drop of a hat, Dunmall's eel-like soprano sax lines are often awesomely resourceful and melodic (particularly in an unaccompanied break on the second piece), Rogers is a bass colossus, and Hamid Drake has both a jazz drummer's drive and a textural percussionist's ear for detail. The audience's prolonged and noisy gratitude testifies to a sustained inventive energy that survives unusually well on the recording.
CD 267 Peace and Joy Jazz Review March 2007-02-20 This is a live show from the 2005 Le Mans Festival, with Chicagoan drummer Hamid Drake joining the regular UK formation of Dunmall, Gibbs and Rogers (well, sort of UK in the latter's case . . .). Why make a curt statement when 22.32 or 31.52 minutes are available? These are the lengths of each improvisation, and fortunately, neither of them feature any slack stretches.
Dunmall restricts himself to the soprano horn, leaving his tenor saxophone behind. This has the immediate effect of imposing a particular sonic feel, a spiralling needlepoint that adds to the contracted tension. Usually, Dunmall will inevitably attain critical mass whilst gruffly huffing on tenor, but it's interesting to hear how he deals with such a self-imposed limitation. He's in sharp contrast to the warm and woolly sound of the Gibbs guitar, the presence of which tends to lend an almost be-boppy tone. Rogers, too, luxuriates in the breadth of his custom-built seven-string bass, retaining the brutality of old, yet now opened up to chamber richness, like a one-man string quartet.
Perhaps it's the combination of Gibbs and Drake that encourages spells of linear jazz movement, rising out of the abstract maelstrom. The soloists go through their rota, but still sound spontaneous. Dunmalls's high horn rides the deep bass booms of Drake's skins, pecking sharply as he moves around the stage, sometimes becoming quieter as he moves away from the microphone. Intentional or not, this adds to the dynamics. In the second selection, Rogers and Gibbs take totally sensitive solos, followed by a Dunmall eruption as the levels rise unanimously. Everyone suddenly leaves him completely alone, but after a calm spell, he pulls out his bagpipes, displaying their harmonic sympathies with the soprano. Dunmall has become a prolific documenter through the channel of his own label, but this SLAM release could well push the music towards a slightly different audience.
Martin Longley
The Wire January 2007
Instantly jumps to number one in my personal Paul Dunmall chart, which - trust me - is substantial. Probably the most concentratedly documented saxophonist in Britain at the moment, Dunmall seems to follow the Paul Bley philosophy of ‘play it, document it, move on’. Here he’s moved back a half step to the squalling, swirling attack that characterises the best of his stuff with Mujician.
Concentrating on soprano, with just a touch of cabrette bagpipes later in the set, he hits stride early and never lets go of the pace. It isn’t Paul’s group, of course, but a collaborative quartet. Philip Gibbs is a fascinating player who reminds me of the nowadays little-discussed Paul Metzke, but in a freer vein; fellow Mujician Paul Rogers has devised his own idiom on the seven-string ALL bass and couldn’t play a dull date if he tried; Hamid Drake doesn’t swing the way Tony Levin swings, which is perhaps why Dunmall forges a more distinct line here. Live at Le Mans in May 2005. Must have been a cracking night.
Brian Morton
Dunmall/Gibbs/Rogers/Drake Peace and Joy SLAMCD267
by Chris Parker
Recorded live at the Le Mans Festival in May 2005, and adding celebrated drummer Hamid Drake to a trio (saxophonist Paul Dunmall, bassist Paul Rogers, guitarist Philip Gibbs) that has been in existence for half a decade (though Dunmall and Rogers have been collaborating for nearly three decades now), this album comprises two lengthy free improvisations, 'Peace and Joy' and 'Music is Like Oxygen'. Dunmall does not pick up his tenor in either piece, operating either on soprano or on cabrette bagpipes (which produce a harsh, multi-textured skirling sound), but his passionate flurries, declamations and snatches of melody (he even occasionally incorporates the odd bop quote) are the immediate focus of the listener's attention, riding as they do on a surging tide of rustling drums, driving full-blooded bass and (the mortar in the wall) understated but none the less vital guitar contributions. Overall, though, this is very much a wholly interactive, democratic group performance, its participants constantly feeding off each other's ideas and demonstrating the level of sophisticated but infectiously intense mutual responsiveness that marks the band out as a premier-league improvising unit. Such music is always best heard live, but this recording provides a pretty fair substitute for that experience.
Alessandro Achilli "Musica Jazz" magazine, vol. LXIII, n. 2, February 2007.
DUNMALL-GIBBS-ROGERS-
DRAKE
«Peace And Joy». Paul Dunmall (sop., cornam.), Philip Gibbs (chit.), Paul Rogers (cb.), Hamid Drake (batt., perc.). Le Mans, 1-5-05. SLAM 267,
distr. propria (www.slamproductions.net/).
Registrato dal vivo al festival di Le Mans (e in questo caso l’immediatezza della musica fa premio sulla nettezza del suono), il Cd consta di due brani improvvisati: Peace And Joy e Music Is Like Oxygen.
Dunmall alterna inaspettati frammenti melodici ad appassionate escursioni lungo tutta la gamma del soprano, cui aggiunge una cornamusa dell’Auvergne dal suono penetrante; per la maggior parte del primo brano è lui il centro dell’attenzione, in un dialogo con la sommessa chitarra di Gibbs e il poderoso duo basso-batteria. Drake si concentra poi sulle percussioni e Rogers sull’archetto, con effetti molto suggestivi, mentre nel secondo brano sono di nuovo Gibbs e poi Rogers a condurre la danza, sempre sorretti dall’eccezionale sensibilità di Drake, prima del ritorno ad atmosfere più roventi sotto la spinta del sax. Sicuramente travolgente dal vivo, il concerto si apprezza anche su disco grazie all’inventiva dei musicisti e al dialogo che riescono a sviluppare.
- Martinelli
