Matthew Bourne - Fun Boy Free
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Pianist Matthew Bourne last year released a remarkable live album recorded in the Norwegian city of Molde. It provided a fascinating glimpse into the world view of the Leeds improv and jazz scene kingpin. The Molde album was the latest milestone in a career trajectory that saw an early peak five years ago with the prodigious flow of his debut record The Electric Dr M for the Sound label. It’s year zero, however, for Bourne as he now unveils the debut of his trio Bourne/Davis/Kane.
Daniel Spicer talks to the band on the eve of the release of its debut album on 31 March. Raw, hostile, ineffably warped with an underlying menace that somehow resolves itself within its own sonic psycho-drama, their debut could mark a new phase for UK improv.
If good things come to those who wait, then fans of anarchic, homegrown free jazz can probably now stop waiting, with the long-overdue release of Lost Something, the debut CD from UK trio Bourne/Davis/Kane. It has been quite a wait. The trio – comprising Perrier Award-winning pianist Matthew Bourne, fellow bastion of the Leeds Improvised Music Association, bassist Dave Kane and Belfast-born drummer Steve Davis – first convened some six years ago. The album was recorded way back in early 2005 and has been gathering dust ever since, narrowly avoiding release a couple of times, until now
being picked up by Babel and given the exposure it deserves.
Happily, it’s been worth the wait. Both serious and playful, steeped in free jazz tradition yet modern and progressive, the new album is a mixture of spiky originals and mischievous reinterpretations of tunes by Annette Peacock, Carla Bley, John Surman and Thelonious Monk. It also practically steams with energy, capturing the excitement of one furious afternoon in the studio laying down these rollicking first-takes.
The opening track sets the pace – a frenetic run through Annette Peacock’s stop-start classic, ‘Kid Dynamite’ that has the band members almost falling over themselves in a frantic race for the last note. It’s become something of a signature tune for Bourne – a constant favourite and regular encore in solo performances – and, more recently, the tune has taken on an extra significance for the young pianist. On a recent trip to meet Peacock in the States, to discuss working together on a future album for ECM, Bourne started digging for clues to the tune’s background, and received a startling endorsement from the source itself.
This is an extract from Jazzwise Issue #118 to read the full feature and receive a Subscribe Here