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Mike Nock / Laurenz Pike: Kindred
ByMentoring, however, is meant to work both ways and, on Kindred, Nock collaborates with former student Laurenz Pike, who has since gone onto his own success with the electo-centic post-rock band, PVT. If Nock was a seminal part of Pike's early daysthe thirty-something drummer first studying and, ultimately, touring the world with the septuagenarian pianistthe two are now on equal footing, clearly inspiring each other in a set where improvisational spirit and linguistic reference points place it in the jazz continuum, even if it's not exactly your granddaddy's jazz.
Pike's involvement in the realms of electronics and post-production barely surface here. Kindred's only obvious nod is, in fact, the three-second gap between the opening title trackwhere Pike contributes one of the few solid (albeit light and pliant) pulsesand the impressionistic "Zeus' Dream," where a single piano chord (from the start of "Satori No Mado," perhaps?) is placed, backwards, swelling from nothing to a crescendo that cuts suddenly when Nock's dark-hued pianism begins. Pike's role is largely texturalas it is throughout Kindred's 12 pieces and 50 minuteshis soft-malleted tom-toms and cymbal swells moving in concert with Nock's dynamically fluid performance.
These 2011 sessions were conceived as music-making without a safety net, and it's clear that Nock and Pikeseparated by nearly 40 yearsdidn't need one. Still, these relatively brief free improvisations are all defined by an unmistakable and immediate sense of purpose. On "All Most Blues," Nock's left hand suggests the bass line to trumpeter Miles Davis' near-iconic "All Blues," from Kind of Blue (Columbia, 1959), but staggered to the point where, when the duo does settles into a defined groove, it's only in passing. "Le Primitif" broaches similar territory, not unlike some of Keith Jarrett's solo work in feel but, with a partner in the proceedings, traveling to places Nock would not likely have gone, were he on his own.
If neither Nock nor Pike opt for overt virtuosity it's because neither needs to. Instead, much like the Sydney scene the pianist helped build, Kindred reflects the "wide range" which Nock finds so inspiring, and is yet another top-drawer recording from an elder jazz statesman continuing to repay, without compromise, the debts of his own formative years.
Track Listing
Kindred; Zeus' Dream; Le Primitif; Mike Battles the Hydra; By Sea; Sleepwalking; Spring; All Most Blues; The Old Times; Satori No Mado; Solstice; 4SL.
Personnel
Mike Nock
pianoMike Nock: piano; Laurenz Pike: drum kit.
Album information
Title: Kindred | Year Released: 2012 | Record Label: FWM Records