John Pope & John Garner: Water Music

Rating: ★★★

Record and Artist Details

Musicians:

John Garner (vn, perc)
John Pope (b, perc)

Label:

New Jazz & Improvised Music Recordings

February/2023

Media Format:

CD, DL

Catalogue Number:

NEWJAIM14

RecordDate:

Rec. 2021

There's a certain economy and simplicity about the idea of duets for double bass and violin – and not a note is wasted in these highly satisfying encounters between these two talented musicians based in the North East of England.

Though the duo started out playing free improvisation, here they’ve struck upon the neat idea of tackling tunes by some of the more avant-garde composers in jazz. Some of these provide the opportunity to demonstrate punctilious precision in the execution of formidably tricky charts – such as Misha Mengelberg's ‘Hypoxmastreefuzz’ and Anthony Braxton's ‘Composition 40-F.’ Others create room for more fluid improvisations, as on the title track, a free ballad from Albert Ayler's last studio session.

On Alice Coltrane's ‘Galaxy In Satchidananda,’ Pope lays down a richly harmonic arco bass drone, while Garner's violin transforms into a high, Theremin-like tone before skirling like a bagpipe. In fact, Garner's skill and ingenuity are impressive throughout. On the opening track, Jeanne Lee and Perry Robinson's bluesy ‘Newswatch,’ his solo starts out with soaring phrases cleanly and clearly articulated before stretching out into a dizzying interlude of microtonal string-skronk. OK, duets are cool – but a full band playing this stuff could really burn.

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