Artist: The Number
Title: The Making of Quiet Things
Cat Number: SLAMCD269
Year released: 2006
Format: CD & all digital platforms
Barcode: 5028386026921
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Free jazz collective The Number, was founded by saxophonist Gary Curson and features bassist John Edwards, drummer Mark Sanders and legendary Brit jazz pianist Keith Tippett. They perform three group improvisations, with the longest clocking in over 20 mins, and two duets. Tippett closes the album with a solo piano piece.
Why is the album entitled ‘The Making of Quiet Things’? “I wanted the music to reflect the quantum level of listening that goes on inside the improvisers’ art. I’m personally very pleased with the outcome, and deeply indebted to the production team and the other members of the quartet”, explains Gary.
Gary Curson: alto saxophone
Keith Tippett: piano
John Edwards: bass
Mark Sanders: drums
“This is magnificent, incandescent, full on free Improv with a strong melodic element…Two members of Dreamtime – Curson and Tippett – meet two-thirds of Evan Parker’s regular group. Curson’s playing has a visceral rawness and urgency – this is someone who should be better-known. Compared to the Dreamtime releases on the same label, fine though they are, this rhythm team produce a torrential effect, with tumultuous playing from Tippett…the musicians were isolated to get acoustic separation, listening over headphones without visual cues. This makes their achievement all the more remarkable.” – Andy Hamilton, The Wire
“The Number specialise in freely improvised music, full on, fiercely interactive interplay utilising the entire dynamic and textural range of each instrument. Tippett, whether performing in the ensembles, duos or the concluding solo piece, moves with his customary ease between full-blooded percussive playing and the most filigree-delicate contributions, interspersed with rustlings and tinklings produced by objects placed on the piano’s strings; Edwards (his playing skills now finely honed by all his experience with the likes of Evan Parker) plunges, twangs and blurts his way through the more raucously vigorous passages and squeaks and drones through the quieter moments; Sanders (his playing as ever finding a middle path between the clattering roar of Tony Levin and the wonderfully sympathetic, quietly rapt patter of Tony Marsh) is the subtly discreet yet powerful heartbeat of the band. It is Curson, however, who most often sets the tone: urgent bordering on downright frenetic, his alto wails, screams and keens, rendering the Number’s music raw and adventurous, intensely emotional. Free jazz at its most viscerally affecting.” – Chris Parker, The Vortex