News From the North

This aggressive trio of improvisers is unified by one idea throughout this session: that none of them gives a damn what the other thinks. It's a liberating notion and one not often seen on the other side of the Atlantic. In this set of tracks, the ancient drummer of British free jazz, Tony Marsh, is pitted in with the ever-youthful Paul Rogers and the energetic youngster Simon Picard on tenor. Marsh is the key to the communication as well. His swooping cymbal work and shifting force on the snare offers a wide berth to the other two. Take a listen to the title track and listen as Marsh, who uses the bass drum sparingly, still drives Rogers into a frenzy of activity with the bow. On "Shenanigan," it's the brute force of two-handed cymbal, tom, and shared rushes, triple and quadruple runs banging off the rims as Picard lets his legato phrasing cauterize the wound inherent in the pace between while creating another one with a deft and manic rush at the higher register in a skittering skein of arpeggios. But there are quieter moments here as well, and that's where Marsh really shows his stuff, shining the kit for some deep lyricism form Rogers' arco work and Picard's mouthpiece tonalities on the quiet but stridently played "Plump but Expansive." There are many wonders, such as the squealing to the edges pallor of Picard's solo on "Temporal," where there is nowhere to go but to the drums and Rogers assents with three huge accent chords, telling Marsh to dive in. In all, this is an exhausting but solid date that lends weight to free jazz's good name.