01/03/2007

This was an intriguing evening of music in a genuine double bill from members of London’s F-ire Collective. The date was part of a short tour promoting the new “Basquiat Strings With Seb Rochford” album which had been launched the previous evening at the Vortex Jazz Bar in North London.
Basquiat Strings have been performing for a number of years under the leadership of cellist Ben Davis and their first album has been eagerly anticipated. Part of the reason for the wait is that players like Davis and Rochford are constantly busy. Davis is also a member of saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock’s quintet and guitarist Jonny Phillips’ group, Oriole.
High profile drummer Rochford leads his own groups Polar Bear and Fulborn Teversham and is also a member of Acoustic Ladyland, the Ingrid Laubrock Quintet and Oriole.
Violinists Emma Smith and Vicky Fifield plus viola player Jenny May Logan are members of the classical Elysian string quartet. They all look strangely familiar. I suspect I may have seen them on Jools Holland’s Later on the occasions that singers have been accompanied by string sections or orchestras.
Double bassist Richard Pryce provides the bridge between the classical and jazz instrumentation, sometimes playing pizzicato in the jazz manner but at other times taking up the bow. Davis also plays pizzicato on occasions and his work with Phillips and particularly Laubrock has shown him to be a major improviser on his instrument, one of the few to utilise the cello effectively in a jazz context. Davis’ distinctive contribution is a major factor in the success of both Oriole and the Laubrock quintet. Both these groups have a unique sound that makes them stand out from the crowd.

Basquiat Strings are pretty unique themselves. Fusions of classical music and jazz have not always been successful. The results have sometimes sounded forced and stilted but the sound Davis’ band generates is far more natural and organic. The presence of the subtly propulsive Rochford is a huge plus. He is one of the most imaginative drummers of his generation and his presence on any project is pretty much a guarantee of quality.
Tonight’s performance began with Davis’ composition “How Do Birds Hear Music” based on the structure of a Hungarian funeral march. Opening with the pizzicato plucking of Pryce and Davis the piece soon gathered momentum pushed along by Rochford’s quirky, gently energetic drumming. Davis was heard vocally encouraging the violinists on to greater levels of intensity. Other reviewers have made reference to the fact that these string players are musically “bilingual” in that they are equally at home with the discipline of classical music and the freedom of jazz with its concept of improvisation. This was demonstrated several times over the course of the evening in the soloing of Davis, Smith and Fifield.
The opening composition segued into a starkly beautiful rendering of Ornette Coleman’s “Lonely Woman” with Davis’ melancholy cello to the fore. This in turn morphed into “Double Dares” another Davis tune and the opening track on the album.
Once again this built from quiet beginnings featuring Rochford’s deft brushwork through a fiery Davis cello solo to something approaching rock dynamics with Rochford now playing more powerfully, having taken up the sticks.
This first sequence had been fascinating-complex, technically dazzling and with frequent changes of mood and pace. The string players were constantly switching between arco and pizzicato. Their roles were constantly evolving, providing melody and colour one moment, rhythmic impetus the next.
The following “64 A.D.” does not appear on the album but was cut from the same cloth. Beginning with just bass and drums it featured violin solos from Fifield and later from Smith who produced seemingly impossible high pitched, keening notes. These were linked by a cello/drum dialogue between Davis and Rochford.
A segue of more non-album material followed. “Scam”/“Grey Gables” was something of a feature for Rochford and featured some great grooves laid down by the drummer in conjunction with Davis and Pryce. Rochford hammers hell out of his kit with Acoustic Ladyland but in gentler contexts he has perfected a unique blend of urgency and subtlety, never imposing on the music but always pushing it forward. Using sticks or brushes, skins or rims he is constantly inventive and supportive and brings out the best in the musicians surrounding him.
Davis’ composition “Junk” is one of the centrepieces of the album beginning with a rhythmic pulse generated by the string players only. Rochford subsequently joins the fray and Smith and Fifield solo in turn. The piece is typically complex and makes great technical demands on the players but is hugely invigorating at the same time.
To close the set Rochford sits out as the string players, all using the bow perform a spacey, spectral rendition of Joe Zawinul’s “In A Silent Way”. It is hauntingly effective.
The music was well received by what appeared to be a largely classical audience in this performance promoted by Cheltenham Contemporary Concerts. A good number of CDs were sold, always an indication of a successful performance.
The album itself features the same heady brew that we had experienced in concert. In addition to the Coleman and Zawinul tunes the CD also includes a dark and unsettling version of “Infant Eyes” by the great saxophonist Wayne Shorter.
The remaining compositions are by Davis and include two brief and atmospheric pieces in “Bobette” and the album closer “Jaci, Jo and Joseph”. The lengthier “Forceful Beast” is spiky and rhythmically complex and features the dark textures of Pryce’s bass and Davis’ cello. At times it recalls Rochford’s work with his group Polar Bear.
The album quickly imposes itself upon the listener. The rich colours and melodies and the interesting rhythmic patterns mean that there is always something to engage the attention. Davis and his colleagues are to be congratulated on this highly successful fusion of classical and jazz music with a touch of folk on the side.

It was the unenviable task of Robert Mitchell to have to follow this with a solo piano performance. I was a little surprised at the structure of the evening expecting Mitchell to appear first and Basquiat Strings later. This would certainly be the normal way of things-solo performer first, band second- but it is part of the F-ire Collective way to challenge convention. In any event as this was a genuine double bill it may be that the running order had been reversed from the previous evening.
Mitchell’s recently released duo album “Bridges” recorded with the Cuban violin virtuoso Omar Puente was recently reviewed elsewhere on 24dash. Three of the five pieces Mitchell played tonight are drawn from that album. Mitchell explained that most of the material he was to play was written in October 2001 giving it the added significance that date implies.
Each piece had a written framework but had considerable scope for improvisation. He commenced with “Agenda For Change” following this with “Each Bird Must Sing” from the “Bridges” album. It was apparent from the outset that Mitchell was a pianist of enormous technical ability with octave spanning hands. “Each Bird Must Sing” included thundering left hand clusters and both pieces were played with fire and passion and great technical dexterity.
“Passion Radar” showed a different side of Mitchell’s playing being pensive and unhurried and making maximum use of the spaces between the notes. There was a limpid, elegiac quality to the playing here which contrasted well with the complexities that had gone before.
“Equinoctune” from “Bridges” was more intense with it’s jagged rhythms and the closing “Priceless”, also from the album was a technical tour de force with the pianist’s fingers a mere blur.
Mitchell’s set had been intense and technically brilliant but somewhat demanding on the listener. It was unfortunate that Puente was not there to accompany him as I feel that a duo performance would have been quite something, especially if the album is anything to go by.
Taken as a whole it had been an evening of intriguing, exploratory music played with great technical facility that had taken many listeners, your reviewer included out of their comfort zone. That it was such a success is a tribute to all the musicians involved and to Cheltenham Contemporary Concerts for having the courage to stage such a cutting edge event.

For details of recordings and live performances by F-ire Collective members see http://www.f-ire.com

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