Alexander von Shlippenbach & Sunny Murray - Smoke

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Alexander von Shlippenbach & Sunny Murray - Smoke

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This duet between Dutch pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach and vanguard drummer Sunny Murray is one of those records that makes FMP such a necessary label. This impromptu meeting between two giants of that "other" jazz world, the avant-garde, reveals with startling clarity the inherent musical courage it takes to play freely with another musician you have never encountered. This nearly 80-minute recording was done in one day in 1989. Here, von Schlippenbach abdicates his normal responsibilities as a leader and becomes a collaborator. Murray, never really anybody's sideman, takes the reins and turns his rhythmic chops on in such a way that the pianist cannot help but to respond in a like manner. So listeners have a study in rhythmic improvisation. The colliding skeins of von Schlippenbach's notes are patterned after the rolling rim shots of Murray's left hand. His arpeggios land like punches in the heart of the tom-tom and bass drum fills, and together they create the rhythmic impulse to improvisation. With the exception of a truly bent -- that is, very innovative -- read of Monk's "Trinkle, Tinkle," the set is one of improvisations credited to one man or the other. Figures combine to make new structures, as bass notes are discarded in favor of side rolls and cymbal shimmers. Also, as middle-register tonal clusters are etched into the pulse of each track, Murray works to accent them, bringing them out from the drums so that they can become drums in and of themselves. And when it's over, in the silence, the listener will most assuredly sit for a while in disbelief at what just transpired. All Music Guide