Saltash Bells

John Surman is an exceptionally versatile musician and his instrumental prowess has been showcased in many contexts. Yet his solo albums may be the best sources for insights into his melodic imagination. If you want to understand the wellsprings of his creativity, the solo albums are the place to go.

John Surman - Saltash Bells (2012) {ECM}
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© 2012 ECM Records | ECM 2266
Jazz / Modern Composition / Avant-Garde / Saxophone

John Surman is an exceptionally versatile musician and his instrumental prowess has been showcased in many contexts. Yet his solo albums may be the best sources for insights into his melodic imagination. If you want to understand the wellsprings of his creativity, the solo albums are the place to go; “Saltash Bells” ranks with the best of them. This time around the compositions were inspired by the West Country of John’s English childhood, memories of special places – and sounds.

Saxophonist and clarinetist John Surman is often characterized as a quintessentially English improviser and composer, and hints of folk music and a pastoral ambience are attributes of his music on well-loved albums like “The Road to Saint Ives” or “Saltash Bells.” Yet he also has a long history of working with musicians from other countries and cultures, players united by such invisible threads as a shared feeling for melody that transcends the idioms.

Saxophonist and clarinetist John Surman is often characterized as a quintessentially English improviser and composer, and hints of folk music and a pastoral ambience are attributes of his music on well-loved albums like “The Road to Saint Ives” or “Saltash Bells.” Yet he also has a long history of working with musicians from other countries and cultures, players united by such invisible threads as a shared feeling for melody that transcends the idioms. John Surman met pianist Nelson Ayres – known to aficionados of Brazilian jazz for his work with Airto Moreira, Milton Nascimento and Banda Pau Brasil – while on tour in South America. In Oslo, Surman came to know and appreciate the playing of Rob Waring, expatriate US vibraphonist (recently heard on ECM with Mats Eilertsen). The three musicians come together to play a new programme of Surman originals – plus Nelson Ayres’s “Summer Song” – in a session recorded at Oslo’s Rainbow studio in July 2017, produced by Manfred Eicher.