Richard Phillips The Time Seer

John Surman, Stu Martin, Barre Phillips - The Trio (1970) {2CD Set, Victor–Dawn Records, Mini LP 20bitK2, VICP-62207~8}
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© 1970, 2002 Victor Japan / Dawn Records | VICP-62207~8
Jazz / Post Bop / Avant-Garde Jazz

This set was also issued as two separate LPs under John Surman’s name, Vogue VJD 505/1 and VJD 505/2. Rare bit of free jazz by this trio of British players from the early 70′s. The music is very intense, without any of the noodling that sometimes ruins Brit sessions from the time. Surman plays baritone, soprano, and bass clarinet, and he really blows like mad in some passages. The sound quality of this album is stunning! In the autumn of 1969, John Surman decided to make a break and joined forces with Barre Phillips and Stu Martin, to form a group they called The Trio. Phillips had a varied background, having worked as a sideman with Archie Shepp, Jimmy Giuffre and George Russell, as well as performing solo in Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic.

Renaissance composers frequently based sacred works on the melodies of secular songs, which were typically placed in the tenor part as a cantus firmus. The mixing of such elements, as in Josquin's Missa Di dadi and the Missa Une mousse de Biscaye, which were based respectively on the chansons N'aray je jamais mieulx and Une mousse de Biscaye, was common practice in the 15th century. However, Josquin also used images of dice in the tenor part of the Missa Di dadi, which have been interpreted as symbols representing time ratios, indicating the length of notes relative to the other three voices.

Playing Elizabeth’s Tune, the television programme which The Tallis Scholars made for the BBC, explored the life and music of William Byrd, Catholic composer for a Protestant queen. In doing so it also illustrated the different styles which Byrd cultivated in his vocal music. This disc is a tribute to the all-round nature of his genius – to the kind of composer who could turn his hand to anything, and transform it.

This release by The Tallis Scholars, the seventh of nine in a project to record the complete masses of Josquin des Prez, explores two unique and contrasting works. Missa Gaudeamus represents Renaissance artistry at its most intense. Based on the first six notes of a chant melody, it deploys mathematics in a number of clever ways. Missa L'ami Baudichon represents Renaissance artistry at its most playful. It is based on just three notes from a secular folksong that sounds distractingly like the opening of Three Blind Mice. Known as the most adventurous composer of his time, Josquin's restless, searching intellect is on display in all his works.

The Tallis Scholars under director Peter Phillips have cultivated a cool, Apollonian sound in a cappella Renaissance vocal music that can be awe-inspiringly beautiful in Flemish polyphony, and especially in the spare English repertory for which they are named. This small, mixed-gender adult choir might not seem an ideal group to take on the darker hues of Tomás Luís de Victoria, but the set of Lamentations of Jeremiah recorded here, music for Holy Week, is quite well suited to their talents. As Phillips points out in his elegant notes (in English, German, and French), Victoria's "Spanish" style was largely forged in Rome, and his somberness was in many ways a personal rather than a national characteristic.

The Tallis Scholars are hands down the most difficult performing ensemble in the world to review. The reason is simple - they have been around for so many years and have produced such a consistent and high quality product, both on record and in the concert hall, that there is simply little to say about them anymore except "bring it on!"