Trevor Watts / Veryan Weston: 5 More Dialogues (2011)

Glenn Astarita

Senior Contributor since 1997

Longtime contributor to AAJ and Downbeat, Jazz Review, EjazzNews, Radio DirectX.

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Published: September 8, 2011

Trevor Watts / Veryan Weston: 5 More Dialogues

5 More Dialogues is the successor to 6 Dialogues (Emanem, 2002) and offers more in the way of fascinating elaborations by longtime collaborators, pianist Veryan Weston and saxophonist Trevor Watts, both heralded artisans of the British progressive jazz and improvisational circuit. A mark of invention pervades throughout, as the duo fuses sublime persuasions, inverted theme-building jaunts, and mesmeric passages with fleeting melodies and rhythmical dynamics.

Highlighted by a manifold approach to the program, the duo aligns a throng of angular discourses, generating an intimate, probing and somewhat mischievous sequence of dialogues on "Exchanged Frequencies," abetted by jovial mimicking and edgy overtones.

Watts' whispery soprano sax lines contain a myriad of linear ebbs and flows amid Weston's punctuating block chords and trickling, single-note developments. The musicians elucidate a buoyant progression of flirtatious encounters via eloquent expansionism, also dispersing loops into smaller sections to synergistically create a multi-part and excitable storyline with a busy, yet productive string of events.

Other than the highly artistic attributes, the duo's resiliency, superior technical acumen and rapidly conceived subplots engender a program that towers above similar endeavors by other prominent and lesser-known improvisers. Exchanged Frequencies is a comprehensive and effervescent portrayal of the finer points of improvised music.

Personnel: Trevor Watts: soprano and alto saxophones; Veryan Weston: piano.

Record Label: Emanem
Style: Modern Jazz