Featuring: Evan Parker
Evan Parker - soprano and tenor saxophones
Barry Guy - bass
Paul Lytton - drums and percussion
Side A
PART I
PART II
Side B
PART II (continues)
PART III
Ken Waxman - JazzWord
A splendid live festival set, Concert in Vilnius is a four-part exhibition of what each trio member can do solo and as part of sympathetic two or three person intercommunication. As much a laboratory-like exploration as the other disc is a showcase, Collective Calls features 11 in-studio ventures where players who know intimately each other’s sounds bounce familiar and unexpected tropes off one another.
Beginning with Parker’s instantly recognizable reed slurs, tremolo pumps from Guy and Lytton’s dark rumbles, the trio CD shows how any motif suggested by any of the three is almost instantaneously picked up by another player and twisted into an original conception. This encompasses thick double bass vibrations extended with clattering cymbals and rim shots from Lytton, or soaring reed stutters made more exciting when mated with col legno pops from Guy’s bass strings. These displays of triple intensity radiate through the session, as is pinpointed during a sequence on “Part II”. Here Guy’s darkened bass tones vibrate with guitar-like facility at the same time as Parker’s ferocious display of tenor saxophone glossolalia and split tones encourage Lytton’s hardscrabble snare pops, lug loosening and cymbal rattle. This track and “Part III” also highlight characteristic Guy showpieces. The first is a speed-of-light rappelling up and down the bull fiddle’s neck as he coaxes squeals from his instrument’s highest pitches and scratches his way southwards, creating resonating patterns and a secondary parade-like line. Even more prodigious, his turn on “Part III” involves almost five minutes of alternating below-the-bridge thumps and mallet-driven col legno string slaps whose stridency is eventually muted with twangs and pinched string resounding. On “Part II”, Guy’s string transformations presages positioned slurs from Parker and finally a regularized rhythm from Lytton. On “Part III”, a rugged waterfall of slurs and smears from Parker evolves to circular breathing and is finally dissected into scattered split tones. Connecting them with drum rat-tat-tats and swabbed strings creates a distinguished climax to the performance.
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