Laura Jurd & Paul Dunmall: Fanfares & Freedom

Well this is an entertaining premise. Free jazz maven Paul Dunmall as featured soloist in a suite composed by up- and-coming trumpeter Laura Jurd. Actually, the reality is more complex. It might be more accurate to say that the unfettered spirits of Dunmall's quartet, with bassist Caius Williams, drummer Miles Levin and pianist Liam Noble, offer the contrast with Jurd's score for a brass quintet. The unlikely combination came about as a commission from the Cheltenham Jazz Festival by promoter Tony Dudley-Evans, which in his words unites "two strong features of the UK scene: free jazz/improvised music and composition for mid-sized ensembles."

The work premiered at the festival in Spring 2023, while the version on this album was recorded live at the Vortex in London that Fall. It comprises six sections, played as discrete pieces, in which the spotlight toggles between the two units, which increasingly intersect as the date progresses. The opening "Fanfare 1" gives a taste of what to expect, as a soprano saxophone squeal interrupts the annunciatory brass, with the two taking turns thereafter, until the entire quartet enters, fending off brass interjections.

It also provides the first inkling of how the borders will be breached. Noble's piano in particular often acts as an intermediary, participating in both the charts and the interplay. And by including seasoned improvisers such as tubaist Oren Marshall, trumpeter Chris Batchelor and trombonist Raphael Clarkson within its numbers, the brass are well able to take liberties. So, after a jaunty oompah interlude on the subsequent "Opening Out," it is no surprise to hear Clarkson continue in rambunctious dialogue with Dunmall's tenor. Much of the project's success stems from similar avoidance of a clear-cut dichotomy between the constituent elements.

Jurd's writing, which calls on English brass band and folk traditions as well as jazz, bursts with crisscrossing lines and interweaving melodies. But she also scripts space for Dunmall to cut through, which he and his colleagues do, either in alternating passages or in juxtaposition to some of the notated material. However, such episodes are necessarily more constrained than on one of the reedman's own sessions, where the journey is as much part of the trip as the payoff. Nonetheless, taken on its own terms the piece works well, and might perhaps be best viewed as a concerto for saxophone.