SLAMCD267 Paul Dunmall, Paul Rogers, Philip Gibbs & Hamid Drake – Peace and Joy

Paul Dunmall, Paul Rogers, Philip Gibbs and Hamid Drake perform a four-way, all-improvised live jam on two long tunes recorded live at Le Mans Festival, 1 May 2005.

Hamid Drake is probably the most in demand drummer for jazz and improvised music in the world today – great strength, sensitivity and time are his hallmarks. Dunmall and Rogers have been playing together for 27 years in many different combinations and their duo playing is now legendary. In the last 5 years they have extended to trio format with the fluid and inventive guitar of Philip Gibbs. Drake’s added contribution has created a quartet capable of significant impact in contemporary jazz.

Paul Dunmall: soprano saxophone, cabrette bagpipes
Philip Gibbs: guitar
Paul Rogers: 7 string bass
Hamid Drake: drums

“The players snap in and out of a surging free swing at the drop of a hat, Dunmall’s eel-like soprano sax lines are often awesomely resourceful and melodic (particularly in an unaccompanied break on the second piece), Rogers is a bass colossus, and Hamid Drake has both a jazz drummer’s drive and a textural percussionist’s ear for detail. The audience’s prolonged and noisy gratitude testifies to a sustained inventive energy that survives unusually well on the recording.” – John Fordham, The Guardian

“Instantly jumps to number one in my personal Paul Dunmall chart, which – trust me – is substantial…Must have been a cracking night.” – Brian Morton, The Wire

“This is very much a wholly interactive, democratic group performance, its participants constantly feeding off each other’s ideas and demonstrating the level of sophisticated but infectiously intense mutual responsiveness that marks the band out as a premier-league improvising unit. Such music is always best heard live, but this recording provides a pretty fair substitute for that experience.” – Chris Parker

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