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| Coruscating John Surman | ECM Records By Don Williamson Consistently one of ECM's more prolific and experimental artists, John Surman has chosen to remain in Europe for the most part, and thus he remains unknown to many but the most determined jazz listeners and devotees of the baritone saxophone. Born in 1944, Surman, perhaps because of his separation from the American jazz mainstream, has develops a grace on his instrument that carries Gerry Mulligan's style a step further. By investigating electronics and British folk tradition, as well as relying on the jazz and classical idioms, Surman has crafted his own lightness and upper-register technique on the baritone sax that remains unlike any other performer's. With a long history of creative projects on the Continent with well-known musicians there, such as Barre Phillips and Albert Mangelsdorff, Surman continues to find new occasions for musical exploration. While Surman isn't mentioned in the recent JazzTimes article about the innovations of European jazz, he falls within the article's contention that Europeans aren't bound to the expectations and sameness of much of American jazz. Manfred Eicher's ECM label remains the leading exponent of that leadership of creative jazz developments into the millennium. On Coruscating, Surman teams up with his friend and bassist Chris Laurence for duo interaction complemented by a string quartet. Instead of using a previously formed quartet, Surman assembled one consisting of string musicians he admires. The effect is one that blends classical references with often stunning improvisational dialogue, such as the surprisingly rich set-up of dark moods on "An Illusive Shadow" as Surman's bass clarinet provokes Laurence's double bass into a response before the strings angularly join in. Surman's baritone sax work on "Stone Flower," in tribute to Harry Carney, may refer to his inspiration. However, Surman has elevated the sonority of the instrument to an almost ethereal level, creating a float amid intermittent bursts of melodic thought. "For The Moment," not to mention "At Dusk," emerges slowly and organically through stringed expression of the theme before Surman affirms on saxophone the suggestions of clear-cut melody, confirming the paraphrase of Eicher's statement that "the only more beautiful sound than ECM's is silence." As a signal of its support of a major artist, ECM has re-released five of Surman's albums from the early 1980's to 1994. Now that American listeners are paying more attention to the jazz developments overseas, it makes sense to check out the leading contemporary innovator, along with Bluiett, of the baritone sax, as well as Surman's work on the other instruments he performs. |
John Surman, soprano and baritone saxophones, bass and contrabass clarinets
Chris Laurence, double-bass
Rita Manning, violin
Keith Pascoe, violin
Bill Hawkes, viola
Nick Cooper, cello
At Dusk
Dark Corners
Stone Flower
Moonless Midnight
Winding Passages
An Illusive Shadow
Crystal Walls
For The Moment
Recorded January 1999
ECM 1702
*EAC (secure mode / offset correction)
*Monkey's Audio 3.99 / extra high compression
*230 MB
*high quality covers
*another chapter of my exceptional life
| CODE |
EAC extraction logfile from 24. July 2005, 23:18 for CD John Surman / Coruscating Used drive : ASUS DRW-1608P Adapter: 0 ID: 3 Read mode : Secure with NO C2, accurate stream, disable cache Read offset correction : 48 Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : Yes Used output format : C:\Program Files\Exact Audio Copy\Plugins\wapet.exe (User Defined Encoder) 320 kBit/s Additional command line options : %d -t "Artist=%a" -t "Title=%t" -t "Album=%g" -t "Year=%y" -t "Track=%n" -t "Genre=%m" -t "Comment=EAC / Monkey's Audio 3.99" mac.exe %s %d -c4000 Other options : Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000 Range status and errors Selected range Filename D:\Audio\lossless\John Surman - Coruscating (2000).wav Peak level 100.0 % Range quality 100.0 % CRC 8A1BC40F Copy OK No errors occured End of status report |
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