Gauden / Hanslip

“and how the who can think the what…”

(FMR Records FMRCD426-1116)

This duo recording dropped through my letterbox with very little fanfare and no press release. It’s an intriguingly titled album featuring the combination of drummer Ed Gauden and tenor saxophonist Mark Hanslip.

The concept behind the album is simple as the succinct liner notes explain;
“The pair were initially billed to play a concert as a trio with a pianist, but the pianist had to drop out at the last minute, forcing the two remaining musicians to do a duo set. They enjoyed it and felt it was good enough to get the duo on tape, so they went into the studio and this is the result”.

The album notes intimate that this is the third recording to feature both Gauden and Hanslip but that it’s their first for FMR and also their first as a duo. However my research only revealed one album featuring the pair, 2016’s acclaimed “Hymns For Robots”, released on George Haslam’s Slam label and credited to the trio UNschooLED which featured Gauden and Hanslip in a collaborative alliance with Shropshire based guitarist Barry Edwards.

Ed Gauden hails from Bridgnorth, Shropshire and gained something of a following in the Midlands area thanks to his work with the rock duo The Jake Flowers Scandal and with the band Sunshine Underground. He then studied jazz drumming at Birmingham Conservatoire where he came into the orbit of Hanslip, Edwards and other jazz improvisers.

I’m more familiar with the work of the versatile Hanslip whose playing I first heard when he was a member of drummer Dave Smith’s band Outhouse. One of the founding members of the London based Loop Collective Hanslip has also worked with pianist Alcyona Mick and guitarist Jonathan Bratoeff. He is a long standing member of bassist Riaan Vosloo’s group Twelves and its larger offshoot Examples Of Twelves.

Hanslip can play relatively straightforward contemporary jazz but in recent years he has been drawn increasingly towards the world of freely improvised music and in 2011 released the album “Dosados” (Babel Records), a collection of improvisations recorded with Madrid born, London based drummer Javier Carmona.
Review here;
http://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/mark-hanslip-and-javier-carmona-dosados/

In 2013 Hanslip teamed up with fellow saxophonist Paul Dunmall and twin guitarists Philip Gibbs and Ed Ricard to release the quartet album “Weeping Idols” (FMR Records).
Reviewed here  
http://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/weeping-idols/

He has also been a member of bassist Olie Brice’s quintet and appeared on that group’s 2015 release “Immune To Clockwork” (Multikulti Records).
Review here;
http://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/olie-brice-quintet-immune-to-clockwork/

Currently Hanslip is involved in a wide range of collaborative projects involving musicians from the London, Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham jazz and improv scenes, prominent among them the Mancunian pair of Adam Fairhall (piano) and Johnny Hunter (drums). A fuller list of Hanslip’s multifarious musical activities can be found at his website http://www.markhanslip.blogspot.co.uk

“Dosados” is the obvious predecessor for this current recording and Hanslip’s sax and drum dialogues with Carmona exhibits many similarities to this later set of exchanges with Gauden. Both albums represent genuine musical conversations between equal partners with both participants helping to shape the direction of the music. And like its predecessor “and how…” is surprisingly accessible and tuneful, Hanslip’s grounding in more conventional forms of jazz helps to ensure that there is always an underlying sense of melody in his music making, no matter how deeply he probes. Not that “and how…” is exactly an easy listen, it will still represent a challenge to some ears, but it’s a lot less forbidding and austere than many free jazz recordings.

The album commences with the atmospheric “Up in Smoke” which begins with the crash of Gauden’s cymbals but subsequently features the delicate rumble of mallets on toms and the slowly evolving tenor sax ruminations of Hanslip who makes subtle use of overblowing and other extended techniques. With Gauden’s percussion shadings faithfully tailing Hanslip’s gently brooding sax lines this is an engaging dialogue that thoroughly absorbs the listener’s attention.

Gauden’s drums also introduce “Pheasants” which has a harsher, more urgent edge. Here Hanslip’s sax playing is more garrulous and this is mirrored by Gauden’s busy drumming which conjures up an impressively wide variety of percussive sounds. I’d surmise that at some point during his time in Birmingham Gauden studied with the great Mark Sanders, a master of free jazz drumming who has worked extensively with Paul Dunmall among many others.

“Jets” is a spirited exchange of ideas with Hanslip’s serpentine sax squiggles accompanied by lightly pattering toms and filigree cymbal work. Gauden’s playing is busy but exhibits an admirable lightness and sureness of touch, for all its agility his playing never becomes overpowering and he’s the perfect foil to Hanslip’s saxophone inventions which again make subtle use of harmolodics.

The following “698” explores broadly similar territory but here the playing is more aggressive and hard edged with Gauden largely favouring sticks over brushes and Hanslip playing in a more direct and forthright manner.

“Spring Board” commences with the sound of brushes on drums and cymbals and includes Hanslip’s most radical use of extended techniques thus far. There’s a real fascination in hearing him explore the outer reaches of his instrument as Gauden’s drums skitter around him.

It’s frequently Gauden’s drums that instigate proceedings and “Enter the Muse” is no exception with the drummer this time seeming to shape Hanslip’s responses. The busy colourful drumming elicits a lithe response from Hanslip whose slippery but melodic outbursts evoke Ornette Coleman and even the earlier bebop era.

“Blue” commences with a charming set of exchanges between Gauden’s delightfully detailed percussion and the bird like trills of Hanslip’s sax . There’s an almost child like joy about the duo’s sonic adventuring with the explorations becoming less inhibited and more forceful as the piece progresses.

The album concludes with a reprise of the opening “Up in Smoke” which is, if anything, even more atmospheric and evocative than that which went before. There’s a real ‘cry’ in Hanslip’s sax which evokes a suitably nuanced response from Gauden. 

The music to be heard on “and how…” fully justifies the duo’s decision to document their music on disc. Hanslip impresses throughout and continues to grow as an improvising musician. Gauden, although previously unknown to me, represents an exciting new discovery.

COMMENTS;

From Ed Gauden via Facebook;

Thanks for the great review, just need gigs now.

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