SLAMCD258 Steve Harris Zaum – Above Our Heads the Sky Splits Open

The second SLAM CD by Zaum, the improvising group led by drummer Steve Harris, based in Poole, Dorset. The album was Voted 3rd in Jazz Review’s Critic’s Poll Best of 2004 and it featured in The Wire’s Top 50 Critic’s Poll for 2004. “Easily the freshest and most thought provoking album of the year”, Brian Morton, The Wire.

Steve Harris: drums
Cathy Stevens: six string ‘violectra’, viola
Geoff Hearn: tenor, soprano saxophones
Karen Wimhurst: clarinet, bass clarinet
Udo Dzierzanowski, Matthew Olczak: guitar
Adrian Newton: live and found samples

“We make no apology for awarding Above Or Heads our highest accolade. At the time of release, it seemed like a remarkable disc. With growing hindsight, it has repositioned our listening to British improvised music. Even with an augmented ensemble, the group’s main energy comes from Harris himself. He is constantly in motion, stoking insistent cross-rhythms and building the deep, slow pulses that give each of these remarkable records their shape…a masterpiece.” – ★★★★ (Core Collection) The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings

“This is masterly stuff from the Pinski Zoo drummer and Elvin Jones acolyte who’s shaped Zaum into one of Britain’s most remarkable improvising ensembles…it’s Geoff Hearn’s saxophones, Karen Wimhurst’s clarinets and the clangorous guitars of Udo Dzierzanowski and Matthew Olczak that give the group its power.” – Brian Morton, The Wire

“The textures are way, way lighter and more spacious than the dense, harmolodic, power-funk environment of Pinski Zoo, although very occasionally there is an echo of that venerable outfit, as when Hearn’s tenor erupts on “Trans” into fragments of the kind of blisteringly emotional Ayleresque tough-love song that is central to Kopinski’s work. With those lighter textures Harris can demonstrate a more nimble and crisp drumming style, and throughout he reveals considerable sensitivity to colour, detail and atmosphere.” – Barry Witherden, Jazz Review

Improvisations recorded live in performance at the Study Gallery, Poole on 5/6 March 2004.
All instant compositions by Zaum.

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