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A Bead on Bead
published in Jazz Forum (Warsaw) 85 (Dec. 1983)
Improvised music, it might be argued, is flourishing in London to a greater degree than its public (so what else is new). Bead Records, along with Incus of course, has been instrumental in documenting and making available this music full of surprises, humor, and energy. Founded in the mid-1970s, as a label cooperatively owned and run by musicians, Bead has presented an ever growing pool of improvisers coming from all musical disciplines.
Some recent albums give an idea of Bead’s carefully varied catalogue. Alan Tomlinson’s solo trombone record, Still Outside (Bead 17), conveys a rich exploration of live, studio, and on location improvisations on tenor, alto, and bass trombones. What is particularly notable is that his trombone speaks despite whatever tricks he adds to the play, for the record is all about trombone voices and Tomlinson doesn’t stop short. Hello Brenda (Bead 18), live and studio duets by Richard Beswick on guitar and oboe with Phil Wachsmann on violin, begins with a long piece for dancer. Each of the musicians allows the other plenty of room to develop his ideas, but their work together is of an immediate instinct, of the same blood. They are never lost, helloing the socks off Brenda.
In Bugger All Stars (Bead 19), anything can happen and Dada holds open the door. The quartet includes Wachsmann on violin, Hugh Metcalfe (a thorough Dadaist) on guitar, Mike Hames on reeds, and Jim LeBaigue on drums. They don’t crowd each other, even when it’s thunder and lightning time, instead they stretch their faces like elastic balloons bouncing all over the musical landscape. Mama Lapato (Bead 20) constitutes a re-evaluation of free jazz in European improvised music, with a quintet brought together by bassist Tony Wren, including Paul Burwell on percussion, Larry Stabbins on reeds, Martin Mayes on French horn, and Marc Charig on cornet and alto horn. If this record were an incantation, it would surely work; passionate and conscious, not self-conscious, it breaks open the sedate and lets in the marvelous.
published in Jazz Forum (Warsaw) 85 (Dec. 1983)
Improvised music, it might be argued, is flourishing in London to a greater degree than its public (so what else is new). Bead Records, along with Incus of course, has been instrumental in documenting and making available this music full of surprises, humor, and energy. Founded in the mid-1970s, as a label cooperatively owned and run by musicians, Bead has presented an ever growing pool of improvisers coming from all musical disciplines.
Some recent albums give an idea of Bead’s carefully varied catalogue. Alan Tomlinson’s solo trombone record, Still Outside (Bead 17), conveys a rich exploration of live, studio, and on location improvisations on tenor, alto, and bass trombones. What is particularly notable is that his trombone speaks despite whatever tricks he adds to the play, for the record is all about trombone voices and Tomlinson doesn’t stop short. Hello Brenda (Bead 18), live and studio duets by Richard Beswick on guitar and oboe with Phil Wachsmann on violin, begins with a long piece for dancer. Each of the musicians allows the other plenty of room to develop his ideas, but their work together is of an immediate instinct, of the same blood. They are never lost, helloing the socks off Brenda.
In Bugger All Stars (Bead 19), anything can happen and Dada holds open the door. The quartet includes Wachsmann on violin, Hugh Metcalfe (a thorough Dadaist) on guitar, Mike Hames on reeds, and Jim LeBaigue on drums. They don’t crowd each other, even when it’s thunder and lightning time, instead they stretch their faces like elastic balloons bouncing all over the musical landscape. Mama Lapato (Bead 20) constitutes a re-evaluation of free jazz in European improvised music, with a quintet brought together by bassist Tony Wren, including Paul Burwell on percussion, Larry Stabbins on reeds, Martin Mayes on French horn, and Marc Charig on cornet and alto horn. If this record were an incantation, it would surely work; passionate and conscious, not self-conscious, it breaks open the sedate and lets in the marvelous.