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Olie Brice Quartet: All It Was
by Mark Corroto
Bassist Olie Brice wears the title of Mr. Inside/Mr. Outside with remarkable ease. Equally adept in free improvisation and structured composition, Brice moves fluidly between extremes. His work with improvisers such as Tobias Delius and Mark Sanders on Somersaults (Two Rivers, 2015), or with Paul Dunmall on The Laughing Stone (Confront, 2023), exemplifie his outside approach. Meanwhile, his release Fire Hills (West Hill, 2022), where he composed material for both trio and octet, showcases his talents on the more structured ...
Continue ReadingOlie Brice / Rachel Musson / Mark Sanders: Immense Blue
by John Sharpe
Even given today's abundance of new issues in whatever genre, there are still bands which travel beneath the radar. One such is the trio of established UK improvisers comprising bassist Olie Brice, saxophonist Rachel Musson and drummer Mark Sanders which releases Immense Blue as its debut album. As a unit it has been around for a while, but the connections go deeper still. Brice and Musson have a duet nearing fifteen years old, while the saxophonist and drummer are two ...
Continue ReadingJohnny Hunter / Mark Hanslip / Olie Brice: Divisions
by John Sharpe
Divisions might seem a strange choice of title for such a cohesive set. It is the name of a four-part suite written by drummer Johnny Hunter for this all British trio completed by bassist Olie Brice and tenor saxophonist Mark Hanslip. As well as his own dates, such as Pale Blue Dot (Northern Contemporary, 2020) for string quartet, sax and drums, Hunter also stokes the fires of Cath Roberts' Sloth Racket and the collective Spinningwork (NEWJAiM, 202z). Perhaps the divide ...
Continue ReadingPaul Dunmall / Olie Brice: The Laughing Stone
by John Sharpe
Reedman Paul Dunmall and bassist Olie Brice have collaborated on many occasions, with Palindromes (West Hill Records, 2020) and John Coltrane 50th Memorial Concert At Cafe Oto (Confront, 2019) only the most recent offerings. They supplement that tally with The Laughing Stone, a studio duet captured in November 2021 in Birmingham, England. Now one of the elder statesmen of the British scene, the prolific Dunmall has appeared alongside luminaries ranging from Evan Parker to William Parker and many more ...
Continue ReadingOlie Brice Trio / Octet: Fire Hills
by John Eyles
This two-CD Olie Brice release features very different discs--one featuring five tracks, which total forty-five minutes, by the trio of Brice on double bass plus Tom Challenger on tenor sax and Will Glaser on drums, while the other has three tracks, totalling forty-eight-and-a-half minutes, by an octet comprising Brice and drummer Johnny Hunter plus two trumpets and four saxophones. The two groupings were studio-recorded in July and November 2021, respectively. As always with Brice-led ensembles, his strengths are the quality ...
Continue ReadingCath Roberts & Olie Brice: Conduit
by Mark Corroto
Do not let the length fool you. Clocking in at just under thirty minutes Conduits by the UK duo of Cath Roberts and Olie Brice is a full meal. During the Covid lockdown, the two musicians recorded the music in two separate locations, but also in real time. Utilizing special software called JackTrip, which eliminates the dreaded internet delay, the pair was able to fashion this seamless recording session. Maybe the separate locales necessitated closer listening by the musicians. Here, ...
Continue ReadingCath Roberts & Olie Brice: Conduits
by John Sharpe
In some ways one could liken Conduits to a telephone call between two friends, given that it was recorded simultaneously over the internet at the homes of baritone saxophonist Cath Roberts and bassist Olie Brice who live some 60 miles apart in England. But, while the vibe is conversational, this being an instrumental exchange, it is as if both talk at once, pursue different subjects, and even go off at complete tangents. And it is all the better that they ...
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