Live album by saxophonist Evan Parker, bassist Barry Guy, and drummer Paul Lytton. It was recorded on June 26, 1996, at The Vortex in London, and was released by Emanem Records in 1998
Excerpts from sleeve notes:
Two sets of circumstances, both too involved to be fully detailed here, resulted in the Parker/Lytton Duo of the 1970s transforming into the Parker/Guy/Lytton Trio of the last dozen or so years. The first was the 1981 duo record INCISION by Parker & Guy, which led to Guy being added to the group. (He had, of course, previously worked with one or both of the other two in various groups as far back as 1966.)
The second, a few years later involved a time when Lytton's mighty percussion and electronics kit was in a different country to himself, so he had to borrow a fairly conventional drum kit. This worked out well musically, and was much more practical for club gigs, so from then on his own fairly conventional drum kit became the norm. The instrumentation thus became the same as that of certain classic Jazz and Free Jazz trios, and the music became influenced by these precursors, even though it has remained Free Improvisation.
The trio has performed fairly frequently ever since, even though all three members often perform in other groups and situations as well, so there is no shortage of excellent CDs and LPs by them. This CD, however, is different in that it features longer performances moving at a more natural pace than hitherto available. The relaxed and freewheeling music reflects the situation of performing in a club before an audience of mostly hard core fans - home territory, as it were.
The Vortex is an excellent, smallish club in Stoke Newington, an inner suburb of London, with an eclectic programme that features Jazz, Free Improvisation, Folk Music, Cabaret, and various combinations of these. When it is full, as it was on the evening in question, there is literally no space between the musicians and the audience, but by contorting the mike stand, I managed to get the lone stereo microphone into a position over the front of the audience, and get a recording representing what one would hear if one stood just in front of the band. I subsequently digitally remixed it slightly to get a more acceptable balance for home listening.
Since both Barry Guy and Paul Lytton live abroad, this trio is rarely to be seen in London, so that when it does play there, a large enthusiastic audience is guaranteed. Such an audience generally feeds-back to the musicians, spurring them on to even greater heights than usual, as happened on this occasion, resulting in music that is more outgoing than would probably occur in a studio situation. All of the music performed that evening is presented here unedited - a complete document of this trio working at full steam.
MARTIN DAVIDSON (1998)
