Paul Dunmall Ensemble

Paul Dunmall/Olie Brice
The Laughing Stone
Confront Core 31

Offering a micro and a macro version of Paul Dunmall’s multi-instrumental capabilities as player and composer, the veteran UK saxophonist is part of two vastly different ensembles. A dialogue between equals, The Laughing Stone matches Dunmall’s tenor and alto saxophones, clarinet and flute with Olie Brice’s double bass for five in-the-moment improvisations. Brice, who leads his own bands also works with the likes of Cath Roberts, while Dunmall’s best-known affiliation was with Keith Tippett’s Mujician.

Tippet’s widow, vocalist Julie Tippetts is a dominant part of It’s A Matter of Fact. With the septet filled out by trumpeter/flugelhornist Charlotte Keeffe, trombonist Richard Foote, guitarist Steven Saunders, bassist James Owston, drummer Jim Bashford and Dunmall and Martin Archer playing a couple of saxophonists each, some of the riffing arrangements suggest Tippetts 1960s’ fame as Julie Driscoll, rock/blues vocalist with Brian Augur’s groups.

A lot has obviously changed during the more than half century, and Tippetts, who burnished her free music credential with the SME and collaborations with Archer, rarely expresses lyrics, but instead scat sings, yodels, gurgles and burbles with a tessitura midway between bel canto and big beat. Meanwhile tutti passages featuring trombone blats, trumpet bugling and reed vamps could come from a horn-rock band of that era. In fact, Saunders’ upfront string clenching stops, ringing chords and biting strokes could have guaranteed him a gig during the Blues Revival.

Crucially though the creative music expressed on the six tracks never descends to Pop-Rock or even Pop-Jazz. Owston, outputs a steady pulse with cymbal claps and kettle-drum-like bumps that’s potent without being all-powerful; and Pacing from Bashford is anything but Rock monotonous. Altissimo squeaks and scooping honks arise from the saxophonists, but usually in context and never at the expense of horizontal evolution. Plunger tones from trombonist Foote, who like the others and Saunders works in Dunmall’s bands, and triplet bites or muted obbligatos from Keefee, part of many other groups, add torque and textures to the tracks while confirming the players’ exploratory backgrounds.

Horn heavy section work with honks and swoops may animate most tunes, but the introductory “Calling The Spirits” and the final triptych “It’s A Matter Of Fact/Ahimsa/Dreaming Again” provide scope for extended improvisations. Each player cycles through intense and informal passages, with simple duets between trombone and guitar or voice and trumpet on the first spelling whole group motifs which roar with Mingusian power. On the final track, guitar twangs and reed projections ground the first sequence along with speared trumpet bites; the mid-section slows down for a formalist bass solo and curlicue saxophone tones; while the concluding minutes are given over to full ensemble rhythmic shouts and a saxophone joust that smears and scoops simultaneously.

Sounds are quieter, but no less intense on The Laughing Stone as Dunmall and Brice unfold five duo interactions. Responsive chesty clarinet timbres and lower-pitched woody string sprawls at varied pitches and tempos intersect profoundly. But the height of the duo’s work comes when Dunmall plays saxophone. The protracted “Purple Dance” is as much about Brice’s scene-setting stops and pizzicato facility as alto saxophone doits and scoops. Additionally, in spite of the saxophonist’s laughing timbral smears and aviary reed flutters, sympathetic connection is maintained between the two for linear continuity and story-telling. Playing his more familiar tenor sax on the introductory and final track, Dunmall spends time expressing and analyzing each iota of every tone. Inner body tube evisceration and wallowing scoops don’t faze Brice on “Shuffle and Bark”; his unperturbed pacing maintains solidarity. A horizontal advance also characterizes the final “Let the Fox Have His Fill”, mostly due to the bassist’s measured stops. Such is the saxophonist’s skill though, that even as he divides tough split tones into ever tinier shards of hocketing, spetrofluctuation, melodic snatches also echo through the track. Over the years Dunmall has demonstrated his artistry in settings from solo to big bands. Here are more instances of it, secured within a sextet or one-half of a responsive duo.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Fact: 1. Calling The Spirits 2. Golden Boat 3. Purple Dance 4. Don’t Ask Why 5. Latu/ Reunion 6. It’s A Matter Of Fact/Ahimsa/Dreaming Again

Personnel: Fact: Charlotte Keeffe (trumpet, flugelhorn); Richard Foote (trombone); Martin Archer (alto, baritone saxophones, harmonica); Paul Dunmall (tenor and soprano saxophones); Steven Saunders (guitar); James Owston (bass); Jim Bashford (drums); Julie Tippetts (voice)

Track Listing: Stone: 1. Shuffle and Bark 2. Dust Swirling 3. As Ripples Skip in a Shallow 4. Lit Feathers Sweeping Snow 5. Let the Fox Have His Fill

Personnel: Stone: Paul Dunmall (tenor and alto saxophones, clarinet and flute) and Olie Brice (bass)