SLAMCD209 Full Monte – Spark in the Dark

Full Monte – a jazz quartet formed in 1988, partly out of encounters made within the Mike Westbrook Orchestra – recorded in London 1990 and 1993.

“Features the subtle, intelligent saxophonist Chris Biscoe with texturally-imaginative guitarist Brian Godding and a fine bass/drums partnership in Marcio Mattos and Tony Marsh. The background of these four players embraces virtually all manifestations of jazz over the past twenty years, from free-improvisation to jazz rack, and they take advantage of that catholicity in their work, playing as a flexible, spontaneous and genuinely even-handed ensemble.” – John Fordham, The Guardian

Chris Biscoe: alto and soprano saxophones, alto clarinet
Brian Godding: guitar synth, samples
Marcio Mattos: double bass
Tony Marsh: drums

“A quartet who have become one of the most exciting and creative practitioners of spontaneous music today.” – Steve Rowlands, A Kind of Love In

“What results is very engaging. The title track is impressionistic and sparky, the guitar synth of Brian Godding well integrated into the whole as it sends out abrupt chiming runs to disturb the even flow. Mattos’s double bass is heard to good effect on Lift Life, while Biscoe is both fluent and mercurial in performance, his contributions always surprising in the directions they take. With Tony Marsh ever inventive, the four turn in a set that, while rigorously uncommercial in appeal, is nonetheless highly enjoyable, a timely reminder that sparks can fly from every direction.” – Simon Adams, Jazz Journal

“Chris Biscoe’s saxes and clarinet are richly melodic, boppish, at times lead from the front with a rising intensity into abstraction; bassist Marcio Mattos provides his usual undersung. robust textural activity, never content to merely run through routine rhythm section duties…Tony Marsh is brilliant throughout, never over-emphasizing tempo and quick to use cymbals and snare to expand the sound field. Their experience shines through.” – Rubberneck

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