Pendle Hawk Carapace

Album review

Saxophonist George Haslam and drummer Paul Hession met in the summer of 1985 and have been playing together on and off ever since. Yet, Pendle Hawk Carapace constitutes their first outing as a duo. Recorded in the studio following a tour of their Anglo-Argentine Jazz Quartet, it offers a generous slab of free improv. The sax/drums duet is a tested format: John Coltrane and Rashied Ali, Evan Parker and Paul Lytton, Ivo Perelman and Jay Rosen, to name only three pairs from different generations. Haslam and Hession's improvising, as free as it may be, still includes jazz references, taking them closer to the spirit of fire music than the more restrained currents rising in European free improv in the early '00s. Hession's talkative drum work gives birth to a groove, no matter how twisted or free-form. Bouncing everywhere, his sticks swing. What he plays rarely feel abstract at all, even though it remains constantly challenging. Haslam's improvised lines often take the form of melodies, especially at the beginning of a piece. When a cruising speed is attained, he may turn to more virtuosic playing (think Evan Parker) or instead swap horns to provide a different color. Here he uses his trusty baritone sax and the slightly exotic tarogato (a double-reed instrument). In "Eaves End," he blows into both simultaneously -- his first-ever attempt at this Rahsaan Roland Kirk trick. The contrast between Hession's hyperactive playing and Haslam's more careful lines turns out to be this album's strongest asset. A very satisfying session.

© François Couture /TiVo