Marshall Allen’s Magic Science, Muthspiel and Herr mesmerise The Vortex

They opened an extraordinary, epic night at the Vortex with a short set mostly from their latest album Layer Cake, of which the title track, featuring an explosive solo from Herr, cascading the beat from bass pedal tremolo around every rim and cymbal sizzler, was the stand–out. For all the talk of funk in pieces like ‘Funky Monkey’, and hints of violent, noirish inspiration (the album takes its title from a 2004 Daniel Craig crime thriller), the Corporation’s music is mostly clean and tidy, though there’s enough anarchy in Herr’s stickwork to stand them out, and had the rest of the night been less extraordinary, they would have remained more vividly in the memory.    

Multi-instrumentalist Christian Muthspiel’s project Seaven Teares (above) adapts John Dowland’s pieces for violins and lute (published in 1604 – a prototype blues for the seventeenth–century court?), using both acoustic and electronic virtuosity to explore the original themes to extraordinarily fluent and lyrical effect. Muthspiel has created ten pieces from the themes of the original seven, and on the first night of their two, the quartet performed six. The pieces were organised melodically around the Muthspiel himself, playing trombone, keys, electronica, piano and recorders, opposite Franck Tortiller on vibes, who gave an effortlessly acrobatic demonstration of vibes technique, dancing around Muthspiel’s melodic line, while Matthieu Michel, on trumpet and flugelhorn, punctuated occasionally with delicate thrusts of muted sound. Steve Swallow – for many, the greatest living jazz composer (as well as a sublime bassist) – was the harmonic ballast, his bass playing undemonstrative (bar his jumping eyebrows) but silky–smooth and beautifully matched to the mood.

Muthspiel’s ability to bring together a four hundred year–old set of compositions with contemporary experimental techniques was exemplified by his exploitation of looping, which recreated uncannily the effects of the a contemporary canon. On ‘Happy’, he played four types of recorder, each one looped over the next in a striking Renaissance music pastiche. Eventually, perhaps, he had used this technique to its full effect, and he was at his most brilliant on his principal instrument, the trombone, coaxing precise darts and juddering wisps of sound from it slightly in the manner of Oren Marshall on tuba. Live, these pieces have a drama and immediacy not always so obvious on their album, and in the sumptuous and compelling blend of planned composition and spontaneity, ancient melody and contemporary technique, they have transformed pieces not usually heard outside a classical period performance into an electrifying piece of musical drama. Muthspiel referred to this quartet as his ‘dream team’, and it was perfectly clear why: live, semi-improvised music doesn’t come much more original in concept, or better played than this.

The mood changed again for a late-night improv extravaganza, as two titanic presences on the scene, the Magic Science Quartet, with 91 year-old Marshall Allen, KA, Henry Grimes and Avreeayl Ra (pictured top of page and above) grappled with London’s Black Top, aka Pat Thomas and Orphy Robinson. Like Muthspiel’s ensemble, these players knew their role to perfection. Henry Grimes – whose discography is a who’s who of post-war jazz – sat impassive, like Steve Swallow, but held the performance together as individual virtuosity dragged it all over. Without the  composed structure of Muthspiel’s pieces, the thrill came from the incredible technical displays of musicianship, most obviously from Allen and Orphy Robinson, but most of all from the sense of group drama, as tempo, theme and dynamic squirmed under their group control. Hearing a group as skilful as this navigate a six–piece performance in such unpredictable directions, at such speed, with only their collective spirit as guide, was a gripping demonstration of what free improv can be.

– Matthew Wright

– Photos by Roger Thomas