Record Reviews

TREVOR WATTS / STEPHEN GREW ~ ALL THERE IS DISCUS 061 (Barcode: 5051078955025) ~ UK ~ Free Jazz / Improvised Music Recorded: 2017 Released: 2017 This is an album by the duo comprising of legendary British saxophonist / composer Trevor WattsFind albums by this artist and pianist / improviser Stephen GrewFind albums by this artist, which presents seven completely improvised, and therefore un-credited pieces, beautifully recorded in a church. The duo format has been one of the earliest musical milieus spearheading the European Free Jazz / Improvised Music / Avant-Garde idioms. It seems that the bilateral inspiration and contact produce often more satisfactory results than those of solo recordings, of which this album is an excellent example. Although playing solo is something both of the musicians present here like doing, the combined forces and the bouncing of ideas between them seems to enhance their respective contributions. In many respects Watts and Grew are complete opposites. Watts always was a romantic at heart and beneath the nonchalant exterior there was always a dreamy melancholic full of lyricism and spirituality. Grew on the other hand is quirky, sharp like a razor, quick to deliver a machine-gun like series of notes and neck-breaking arpeggios, supported by a left hand wall of sound effect. Somehow the meeting between these two opposites works wonderfully and shows the affinity they obviously share towards each other. This is music of a moment – here now, gone in a blink. Improvised music tends to be like that and it is up to the listener to make the intellectual / emotional effort to follow the rapid development and the barrage of ideas, delivered simultaneously from two sources; definitely not an easy task. However, as in all difficult music, the moment one is able to lose oneself in the music, crossing the cultural / intellectual barriers, it all becomes crystal clear, embracing and comforting. As I have often stated, Improvised Music rarely manages to make the transition between its performance and the recorded document, without losing its meaning, power and validity in the process. Often the loftiest performances become so detached from the ambience of the room they were recorded in, the people present in the room (musicians and audience in case of a live recording) and even the odors in that room, that the recorded document simply means nothing any more. Happily this is not the case here and the music captured herein remains meaningful, touching and most importantly alive, despite the fact that it is captured in a series of ones and zeroes. I have been lucky to enjoy the music created by Watts for the last five decades, still vividly remembering the early days of British Avant-Garde in smelly, dinky clubs / pubs around London in the late 1960s, where this music was born. We were few then and we are still a tiny minority, but in this crazy world we live in, it is good to have some stability, and Trevor has always been steady as a rock as far as delivering challenging, wonderful and inspiring music, for which I thank him from the bottom of my heart.

Updated: 02/01/2021Posted: 12/11/2017

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