The Guardian
/ John Fordham
Schlippenbach
Trio: Features (Intakt)
Improvised
by master craftsmen
4 / 5 stars
The trio of Alex von
Schlippenbach, saxophonist Evan Parker and drummer Paul Lovens are
nowadays that enemy of free-improv purity: an institution (the three have
played together for 45 years). But if they can almost unerringly read each
other’s minds, their methods have never hardened into habit, and their work
over the decades has immense variety. There are 15 numbered Features here, and
they are tautly concise, and often defined by improvised openings by one or
other participant that shape their developing character. Feature 1 begins very
melodically, developing with logical rigour and ends on a haunting multiphonic
sustained tone. Some pieces weave Parker’s nimble mid-range tenor sax lines
through percussive backdrops of banging chords and Lovens’ light, scuttling
patterns; some are soft and ballad-like. Feature 6 highlights Schlippenbach as
a brusque romantic; Feature 8 sounds like jazzy call-and-response; Feature 11
is a tone poem for Parker’s remarkable textural palette. It’s unpremeditated
music executed by master craftsmen.
