Olie Brice / Achim Kaufmann

“Of Tides”

(Babel Records BDV16144)

During the 2016 EFG London Jazz Festival I enjoyed a performance by a trio led by Birmingham based saxophonist Mike Fletcher and featuring Olie Brice on double bass and Jeff Williams at the drums.

I spoke with the musicians after the gig and Olie was generous enough to provide me with a review copy of his latest album release, a duo recording made with the German pianist Achim Kaufmann. “Of Tides” was officially launched at the Festival with a performance by Brice and Kaufmann at the Vortex, the venue where this live album was recorded on 8th December 2014.

Brice, born in London in 1981 was a relatively late addition to the professional ranks, a largely self taught musician who studied history and sociology at Manchester University before embarking on a full time musical career. He has been a fairly regular presence on the Jazzmann web pages and and has featured in reviews of albums by the Mike Fletcher Trio, trumpeter Nick Malcolm’s Quartet, saxophonist Dee Byrne’s group Entropi and BABs, the electro-improvising trio featuring him alongside multi reed player James Allsopp and electronics wizard Alex Bonney. In 2014 Brice led his own quintet featuring Williams, Bonney (here on trumpet), Mark Hanslip (tenor sax) and the Polish musician Waclaw Zimpel (alto clarinet) on the excellent “Immune To Clockwork” album.

Brice has also recorded with the trio Catatumbo alongside saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock and drummer/percussionist Javier Carmona. He has also worked with the Chicagoan sax giant Ken Vandermark and with the British musicians Tobias Delius (reeds), George Crowley (reeds), Paul Dunmall (reeds), Loz Speyer (trumpet) and Mark Sanders (drums). Brice is currently a member of the Riverloam Trio with Sanders and the Polish reeds player Mikolaj Trzaska and at the recent EFG London Jazz Festival he and Sanders also played in a trio featuring the American cornet player Kirk Knuffke.

I’ll admit to not having previously heard of Kaufmann who was born in Aachen in 1962 and subsequently studied music in Cologne prior to living in Amsterdam for thirteen years before eventually relocating to Berlin. An important figure on the European jazz scene he leads his own trio featuring bassist Robert Landfermann and drummer Christian Lillinger and has also worked with Michael Moore (reeds), Han Bennink (drums, percussion) and the improvising cellist Okkyung Lee.

“Of Tides” contains liner notes by the respected journalist and blogger Richard Williams who explains that the initial impetus for this duo came from Brice who made an approach to Kaufmann after hearing the pianist on record. Their first gigs were as a trio with the percussionist Roger Turner and these shows represented Kaufmann’s first performances in the UK, including a visit to the Vortex.

I’ve always enjoyed Brice’s playing best when he’s been exploring the hinterland where composed and improvised music meet, as he does with his own quintet, and also with the groups led by Fletcher and Malcolm. However his partnership with Kaufmann takes him deeper into fully improvised territory and the five pieces that make up “Of Tides” are wholly spontaneous, spur of the moment creations, free improvisations all credited to Kaufmann/Brice. 

The title of the opening “Moss Grew In The Cracks” seems particularly apposite as dark, grainy arco bass textures combine with the eerie sounds coaxed by Kaufmann from deep within the innards of the piano. Even without the presence of Turner there’s a percussive quality about the sound with the harsh strike of Brice’s bow upon the strings and Kaufmann’s interior plucking and scraping. Eventually Kaufmann sits down at the keyboard and adopts a more conventional piano sound while Brice puts the down the bow and begins to play pizzicato. The resultant dialogue is fairly brief,  but always busy and garrulous, yet the pair always complement each other, no matter how animated the conversation becomes.

“The Rumble Of Constant Adjustment”, another apt title, is initially more considered in mood and approach yet there is still an absorbing spark and rigour about the piano and pizzicato bass exchanges. Things take a more abstract turn with a passage of unaccompanied arco bass before the duo renew their conversation with Brice eventually putting down the bow as Kaufmann’s playing becomes more percussive. Williams’ notes suggest the influence of Herbie Nichols and Andrew Hill upon the pianist. For me there’s also a hint of Thelonious Monk and in, the more extreme moments maybe even Cecil Taylor or Myra Melford. This lengthy second improvisation goes through brief unaccompanied brief pizzicato bass and piano episodes before an extended dialogue that is very much a conversation between equals and takes in several distinct phases as instruments drop in and out and the musicians take turns to lead and shape the music, the piece finally resolving itself with a passage of unaccompanied pizzicato bass from Brice.

“Cogitations” is possessed of a sombre beauty with the woody, deeply sonorous tone of Brice’s plucked bass complemented by Kaufmann’s appropriately thoughtful piano ruminations.

Brice is quick to praise his partner’s responsiveness as well as his phenomenal technique, qualities that are both to be heard in abundance as the duo continue their interactive dialogues on a piece titled “To Heap”. At one juncture Brice takes a step back to enjoy Kaufmann’s dazzling solo piano pyrotechnics before eventually returning with an equally impressive feature of his own. This segues into a further, more obviously avant garde, dialogue with Kaufmann this time making effective use of prepared piano techniques.

The album concludes with the title track, which takes over in the same musical territory that “To Heap” left off with Brice on abstract, grainy arco bass slowly drawing a response from his partner.
These deep, dark sonorities lead into more vigorous exchanges incorporating Kaufmann’s jagged keyboard runs and subsequent prepared piano effects. The mood of the piece is intense and claustrophobic and must have been absolutely compelling live.

Interestingly the album, which was recorded and mixed by the indefatigable Alex Bonney, has had all of the audience noise edited out which makes it sound more like a studio recording. What is beyond doubt is that it’s emphatically an improv record and goes even deeper into that world than most of the previous recordings that I’ve heard featuring Brice have done. 

For me it’s a less enjoyable disc than “Immune To Clockwork” or any of Brice’s albums with Fletcher, Malcolm, Entropi etc. but it should be borne in mind that Brice is exploring fundamentally different territory here, with any pre-conceived structures or ideas utterly abandoned. “Of Tides” is undeniably impressive in its own way and there’s much to enjoy in the duo’s sparky, interactive, spontaneous conversations but ultimately it’s very much an album for the improv purist.   

 

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