Dave Stapleton & Matthew Bourne,
Dismantling the Waterfall
Edition Records
Released May 26th 2008
This was a most unexpected album release, especially perhaps because piano duos are by no means commonplace in jazz. Closest to home we have Keith Tippet with Stan Tracey and that is interesting for a number of reasons, most obvious among them in this instance being that the titles of the seventeen tracks are taken from the seventeen lines of a Julie Tippetts poem. Followers of Tippet and Tracey will agree though that their duets are formed from the convergence of perceptive minds hell-bent on musical improvisation and that I find is what Waterfall offers us.
There is another aspect to this music that I find fascinating, in that it echoes the impressions I enjoy of an avant-garde chamber group. It might be that the piano and forte elements of the instruments, combined with their range of seven octaves and a minor third, aurally represent the four instruments of such a group, creating that superficial appearance. Such perceptions are equally brought about by other combinations in jazz, where perhaps the instrumentation is recognized as having a more ‘natural’ place in the classical world. Many modern jazz musicians too have an education in music that has been based on a much broader range than many of their forebears and this might very well affect styles of playing and composition. Violinist Mark Feldman leaves me with that perception, as does pianist Matthew Shipp, especially perhaps when playing with William Parker on bass.
I’m going to call this ‘European music’, as much influenced perhaps by Shostakovich as it clearly is by Cecil Taylor, present all over the place. It’s important to add that, because this is very definitely jazz and of the highest quality. Avant-garde jazz, I should say, with thrust, drive and energy, though with those characteristics tempered by an aesthetic sensibility, to reveal the fullness of the beauty residing within. Dismantling the Waterfall is colossal, complex and labyrinthine: full of harmony and melodic improvisation, it is narrated explosively with articulate and passionate phrasing. David Stapleton and Matthew Bourne are most accomplished at their pianos and are among the very best of our improvisers. Avant-garde you might think, but entirely accessible jazz.
Reviewed by
ken cheetham
June 2008
