As journalist and music critic Brian Morton made clear in his liner notes for the album ‘Braids’, released last year by Now-ezz-thetics from the mythical Hat Hut, here are “three men who have, if you will, won the argument already”. Three well-recognised figures on the jazz and improvisation scene, and perhaps not so curiously, with more or less permanent links to musicians in this country, who meet here to create music full of freedom that never lets itself be taken in by the fuss or the soloist apparatus to make itself heard. Organic communication with as much surrender as silence, coming from people who listen well and deliver each note and movement with absolute valour and mutual respect. Intuition and knowledge that make themselves known without fuss, between moments of greater expansiveness and a restraint close to lower-case improvisation that never sins by its absence. Everything in its place.
Corsano’s infinitely resourceful drums, whose recurring presence here has been a blessing, whether through his close connection to Rodrigo Amado or in other configurations, create a whole tapestry of cymbals and unusual textures on the skins that mesh with the harmonics, extended techniques and elusive melodies of the guitar of the Swiss Florian Stoffner, a musician with links to Creative Sources and a regular collaborator of Paul Lovens. At the other end of the spectrum, Britain’s John Butcher – a key figure in jazz and European improvisation – spreads a whole host of techniques and actions on both tenor and soprano saxophone, capable of ranging from melodic notes full of lyricism to moments of absolute abstraction in a single breath. BS
