Bley School: Where?

Punningly recalling beloved British children's TV programme Play School, the name Bley School neatly encapsulates what is afoot on this album, representing an open-minded and irreverent fondness for tunes, especially those associated with the groundbreaking Canadian pianist Paul Bley. Responsible for this is the threesome of pianist Pat Thomas, bassist Dominic Lash and drummer Tony Orrell. Captured live at north London's Cafe Oto in 2022, Where? constitutes the band's second album following its eponymous 2019 debut also issued by Brooklyn's adventurous 577 Records.

All three protagonists are seasoned free improvisers, but hail from broad hinterlands. Thomas, whose backstory takes in iconoclastic guitarist Derek Bailey as well as drum maestro Tony Oxley, is finally reaping the recognition his talents deserve, most especially with the combustive quartet [Ahmed]. Lash has worked extensively with saxophonist John Butcher, clarinetist-guitarist Alex Ward and pianist Alexander Hawkins, as well as moving within contemporary classical circles, while Orrell has recorded frequently with reed man Paul Dunmall among others. Incidentally it is Orrell who also has the strongest, albeit indirect, connection with Bley, through a long collaboration with saxophonist Andy Sheppard, who toured regularly with the pianist's wife Carla.

Three of her charts sit alongside one by Bley's second wife Annette Peacock, two standards, a Thelonious Monk piece and a collective improvisation. No familiarity with the songs is needed to enjoy this wide ranging set however. Thomas takes a characteristically robust approach to the material, isolating and repeating particular phrases as motifs, stuttering haltingly as he alternately stretches and compresses the fabric. For much of the time Lash furnishes a responsive counterpoint while Orrell lays down a clattery pulse rather than a steady beat, although both shift in and out of time at will, as the moment dictates.

Thomas begins "There Is No Greater Love" with a series of clipped notes outlining Monkish intervals, before launching into stride piano, prompting a jaunty two-step rhythm, while when the real thing arrives with "Monks Mood," it becomes an emphatic stomp. Among the other highlights is "Gesture Without Plot/Syndrome," (a mash up of two pieces that appear consecutively on Paul Bley & Scorpio (Milestone, 1973)), which evolves from a pointillist dialogue of muted clanking and woody clip-clop, into a ruminative refrain and then lastly a breathless dash. Also notable is the extended rendition of Carla Bley's "Ida Lupino," mysterious and droney before unveiling the haunting melody and subsequent staccato interaction.

Demonstrating the trio's capacity for both on-the-hoof invention and ensuing satisfying deconstruction, with its extemporized riff and syncopated bass, the final "Where?" boasts more of a structure than many of the preceding compositions. By turns radical, intimate and joyous, in about equal proportions, few groups possess such a fluid yet cohesive identity.