I often think that the purest format for improv is the duo where one of the players is a drummer. There is something about the interplay between two musicians, both questing for fresh knowledge, plus the space provided between the grounding of the percussion and the wind scattered revelations of the instrument.
Here, two doyens of the Manchester improv scene have convened to produce something which is at once immediate and joyful and proves that in this case two is definitely a magic number
The more you listen to improv drumming, the more it seems to make sense. With all rhythmic obligations lifted, the matter of propelling a piece falls to innate feeling and internal sensation which is unique to every player. Over these four pieces, Andrew Cheetham takes a full excursion through the kit that lays down rough, distant pathways through which Mark Hanslip‘s sax drifts as if it were a bird loosely following but watching expectantly for activity off the track. The sax is warm and welcoming; there are no terrifying skronks or vein-bursting high notes; but there is an approachability, a lightness that is totally accessible yet constantly strays from convention. You can hear subtle half-remembered hints of ’50s classics in a four-note run that then meanders back off.The drums roll and roll like sticks being pushed down a hill, their progress impeded by rocks, courses changed by tussocks but gravity always winning. The cymbals are warm; you can bathe in the shimmer of light that falls across the room, because on the whole this is sunny improv, two friends playing for the sake of playing.
There are sections where the sax may fall into limbo, drifting, momentum briefly surrendered while the drums nudge and coerce, nibbling at the sax, urging it to be up and away. The short “A Little Pine” is more tom-based, with the sax spectral at points, lifting further into the atmosphere, the distance between it and the track growing gradually greater, the low and mysterious drawn-out tones having a lugubrious, veiled quality. Where “Cod Necessity” follows a similar path to the opening track, closer “Voisines”‘ is even more measured in parts, the spaces between the notes clearer, with Andrew sensitively reducing the action, intuitively withdrawing, calming things down but further highlighting the bond between the two.Sting And Grid is an album of great joy and great sensitivity which bears repeated listening due to its relatively calm nature. A real delight for any improv lovers.
-Mr Olivetti-
