Jazz Articles

Evan Parker - Barry Guy: So It Goes

by John Sharpe
February 17, 2024

Two masters who have invented a (the?) lexicon for their instruments meet on So It Goes. British saxophonist Evan Parker and his compatriot bassist Barry Guy should need no introduction to anyone interested in European free improvisation. Both active since the 1970s, they remain vital forces even with as they both move into their eighth decade. Their association was formalized in 1980 with the inception of the long running trio completed by drummer Paul Lytton. But they have also appeared ...

Agustí Fernández/Barry Guy/Ramón López: A Moment's Liberty

by Mark Corroto
May 15, 2014

The term “elegance," is rarely utilized when referring to a jazz recording. In fact, “elegant jass"might be an oxymoronic term. Sure, The Modern Jazz Quartet always performed in formal wear, and Duke Ellington evoked gracefulness in response to his advertised “jungle music," but jazz has always bumped up against the high brow ceiling of more orthodox music. Enter the Aurora Trio of pianist Agustí Fernández, bassist Barry Guy and drummer Ramón López. Their music (lets call it poetry) ...

Agusti Fernandez - Barry Guy - Ramon Lopez: A Moment's Liberty

by Glenn Astarita
February 9, 2014

The powerhouse international trio's third effort radiates an uncanny, or perhaps uncommon framework combining beauty--due to Agusti Fernandez's lyrically rich and gorgeous statements--coupled with power and free-form elaborations. For instance, on the 18-minute opener “A Moment's Liberty," Fernandez opens with solitary phrasings via lush balladry while transmitting a sense of loneliness until the band embarks on a topsy-turvy voyage, drenched with slippery deviations and drummer Ramon Lopez's rolling wave type patterns. Aided by the translucent audio engineering, you ...

Agustí Fernández / Barry Guy / Ramón López: Morning Glory

by Mark Corroto
May 11, 2011

In what could easily mistaken for a release on the ECM label, Morning Glory inhabits that crisp minimalist style so familiar to producer Manfred Eicher. Surprisingly enough, this studio recording, with bonus Live In New York disc, is delivered by three of today's most zealous improvisers and outcats. Formed in 2005, the trio's previous release, Aurora (Maya, 2006), began bassist Barry Guy established their improvisation bona fides with saxophonist Evan Parker's intellectual explorations and Mats Gustafsson's noisier ones. ...

Ken Vandermark / Barry Guy / Mark Sanders: Fox Fire

by Mark Corroto
September 24, 2009

The audience has been removed from these live concerts, recorded in 2008 in Birmingham and Leeds, featuring American reedman Ken Vandermark alongside British drummer Mark Sanders and bassist Barry Guy. Despite the constraints of a short, five-day UK tour of only six concerts, there's much to savor in the resulting two discs, for connoisseurs of creative music.

Granted, there is no such thing as a “perfect" freely improvised recording. Listening to a recording is different from attending the ...

Barry Guy/Mats Gustafsson/Raymond Strid: Tarfala

by Mark Corroto
March 15, 2008

I've read interviews with jazz musicians that have told of their first hearing John Coltrane's LP A Love Supreme (Impulse!,1964) and their seemingly inability to turn over the vinyl and play the second side, fearing that it would not compare to the first side. This listener had a similar experience listening to the first (and title) track of this recording. Clocking in at more than twenty seven minutes, it is an entire meal in itself, leaving one satisfied or wondering ...

Evan Parker/Barry Guy/Paul Lytton: Zafiro

by Matthew Sumera
August 26, 2007

It's hard to account for longevity among freely improvised groups. One somehow assumes that part of the success of much of the genre relies upon the newness of encounter--flirting with the unknown that presumably can only come from fresh associations. This, of course, is one of the myths of free improvisation, for in truth there are any number of long-standing groups that have defined the heights of the genre: AMM, Alexander von Schlippenbach's trio (with Evan Parker and Paul Lovens) ...

Agusti Fernandez / Barry Guy / Ramon Lopez: Aurora

by Andrey Henkin
March 24, 2007

It would be a fallacy to think that any musician who inhabits the world of free improvisation wishes that world to be a noisy chaotic place. Indeed, one cannot make any assumptions these days about free players, whether it be based on age, background or collaborators. Though Spain has not produced the avant-garde swarms of other places in Europe, it has a respected ambassador in pianist Agusti Fernández. But to call Fernández avant-garde is another fallacy. Call him flexible, call ...

Evan Parker / Barry Guy / Paul Lytton: Zafiro

by Eyal Hareuveni
February 1, 2007

My level of expectation for a new release by the trio of Evan Parker, Barry Guy and Paul Lytton is always high. These British gentlemen are masters of free improvisation and have collaborated together for almost forty years in many groups, like Barry Guy's London Jazz Composers' Orchestra and the more recent New Orchestra and Evan Parker's Electro-Acoustic Ensemble. They have criss-crossed over the years in duos, trios and trios augmented by like-minded improvisers such as pianists Marylin Crispell and ...

Evan Parker / Barry Guy / Paul Lytton: Zafiro

by Mark Corroto
January 21, 2007

The best comparison to the trio of Evan Parker, Barry Guy and Paul Lytton in modern performing jazz might be Keith Jarrett's trio with Jack DeJohnette and Gary Peacock. Like Jarrett's trio performances of jazz standards, the Parker/Guy/Lytton meetings are modern benchmarks for trio interplay, empathy and creative music. But where Jarrett begins his exploration at a well-known point of departure, Parker, Guy and Lytton draw upon their forty-year codex of improvisation--not only as a jumping-off point, but as their ...