The Spontaneous Music Ensemble

Evan Parker, Barry Guy, Paul Lytton - Zafiro (2006) {Maya Recordings}
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© 2006 Maya Recordings | MCD0602
Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz / Free Improvisation

Evan Parker, Barry Guy and Paul Lytton meet in Barcelona. A trio concert in the «Auditorium» is on the agenda, the first one for months. «We hadn't seen each other for quite a while and were really looking forward to it», Barry Guy remembers. That their reunion should take place in Barcelona, was as obvious as the intention to record the evening's concert. However, nobody knew beforehand that sound engineer Ferran Conangla would hand over a glittering uncut gem at the end of the day from which a sapphire - Zafiro would develop.

It is intended with the utmost respect that this album is entitled Apura!, which in the Filipino language Tagalog translates to “Very Urgent” (the name of an epochal record by the Blue Notes, the pioneering South African jazz sextet of which drummer Louis Moholo-Moholo was the heartbeat). The musicians of Louis and Trevor Watts’s generation cast a tremendous shadow over the legacy of improvised music. It’s not difficult to romanticize the era in which these musicians first made their marks, exercising a creative daring and artistic ingenuity that was transformative in scope. For individuals like Louis, who spent so much of his youth fighting the injustices of the South African Apartheid regime, the raging music of the last century took on a kind of political urgency that reflected very real, very personal consequences…

Still little known outside of France, the three musicians forming Triolid deserve wider recognition among free improv circles, at least judging from Ur Lamento, their first album as a trio. Their music is informed by the London scene that spun from the Spontaneous Music Ensemble and the more cerebral Austrian-German current of quiet, highly focused improvisation, along with France's very own take on the subject. It means that the musicians are seeking a form of interaction based on intense listening to each other's moves but still claim the right to use large dynamics and get excited…

John Martyn’s seminal live album from 1975 has been given the deluxe edition treatment to celebrate its 35th anniversary. Disc One is the original eight-song concert digitally remastered and sounding as fresh as a daisy. The collection includes live versions of "May You Never", "Bless The Weather" and "Solid Air". Disc Two features four songs which didn’t make it on to the original album, including "I’d Rather Be The Devil", "So Much In Love With You", "Clutches" and "Mailman", plus a further six previously unreleased songs recorded in rehearsals and featuring Paul Kossoff on guitar..