1 | Beyond the Barrier - Part 1 | 38:32 | |
2 | Beyond the Barrier - Part 2 | 31:54 | |
3 | Beyond the Barrier - Part 3 | 9:21 |
"How do we push beyond the merely presentational? Market acceptability is surely a too limiting artistic objective. Maybe, no objective at all. Contrary to what so many commentators and educators promulgate, there is always somewhere else to go, to explore, to enlarge and to enhance. Being content with one's lot is aesthetic (and maybe political death). There are no fixed objectives as characterised and circumscribed by systems and conventions. Within these digitally configured sounds you will hear cross generational responses to these questions. Nathanial Catchpole (b. 1980), John Edwards (b.1964) and myself (b. 1942) Negotiating the challenges of uncertainty. What might seem to be (on repeated listening) a fixed pattern, was, in performance, a series of questions and choices. How much should we push, pull, nudge and test anticipated responses? And, how much should we try the patience of our fellow musicians and our audience? These considerations are not necessarily barriers to playful activity. They are always - joyfully - limits to surmount and other horizons to be viewed." - Eddie Prévost.
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John Edwards / double bass
Nathaniel Catchpole / tenor saxophone
Edwin (Eddie) Prévost / drums and bowed tam-tam
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John Edwards is a true virtuoso whose staggering range of techniques and boundless musical imagination have redefined the possibility of the double bass and dramatically expanded its role, whether playing solo or with others. Perpetually in demand, he has played with Evan Parker, Sunny Murray, Derek Bailey, Joe McPhee, Lol Coxhill, Peter Brötzmann, Mulatu Astatke and many others.
"I think John Edwards is absolutely remarkable: there’s never been anything like him before, anywhere in jazz." - Richard Williams, The Blue Moment
A founder-member of AMM (1965-2022)
“[Eddie Prévost’s] is one of the greatest metallurgists that music has produced. […] sparks delicately arcing through the air, of slow lava ingesting its surroundings, of the shifting grind of tectonic plates across each other, of the rustle and glint of a firebird darting between shadows, and of ore smashing into the surface of the earth; but perhaps this language is overwrought: all that needs to be remarked upon is Prévost's industry, his diligence.”
Nathan Moore — liner note to AMM’s ‘Indúsria’
Matchless Recordings mrcd105.
But beyond this work Prévost has also maintained a relationship with the jazz drum-kit.
“His free drumming flows superbly making perfect use of his formidable technique, but his most startling feature is his stylelessness. It’s as though there has never been an Elvin Jones or a Max Roach.” - review of a set with saxophonist Lou Gare, Melody Maker (27.03.1975)
“Prévost, meanwhile, was simply miraculous; it was fascinating to watch him and to compare his approach with that of a Kern or a Nilssen-Love. I can only say that he was possessed of an uncanny, burning intentness that navigated the ensemble through passages of stark, sculpted beauty, grave concentration and full-on, bristling energy.”
Blue Tomato, Vienna 2012. In concert with Marilyn Crispell and Harrison Smith. Richard Rees-Jones
“An excellent release from one of the finest percussionists around, jazz or otherwise.” review of Prévost’s solo CD ‘Collider’
Matchless Recordings mrcd106 – Brian Olewnic, Squidsear (2022).
“Relentlessly innovative yet full of swing and fire.” – Morning Star