PAUL DUNMALL MOKSHA BIG BAND

I Wish You Peace
Cuneiform RUNE 203

Unquestionably a 50th birthday present to himself – and his listeners – there’s a tendency to hear I WISH YOU PEACE as an attempt by British saxophonist Paul Dunmall to sum up his musical experiences after a half century of life. Yet it’s a much a reflection of the present and future as the past.

Writing the three-part suite at a time when the war in Iraq was in full battle mode, Dunmall’s spiritual preoccupations seem a bit overcome by bellicose motifs in this recording, initially premiered on BBC Radio 3. Still the title reflects the reedman’s desire for humankind to achieve a non-war-like serenity.

As for the band’s name – Moksha is a Hindu word meaning the final liberation of the soul. It references the sort of transcendental conscientious Dunmall and others first experienced in the 1960s and have migrated to the 21st Century. Like certain orchestral showcases for saxophonists recorded at the time by Pharoah Sanders, John Coltrane and Archie Shepp, “I Wish You Peace” is very much a concerto for Paul, with the ever-inventive saxophonist taking the greatest amount of solo space.

The most prominent secondary voices belong to Dunmall’s associates in small groups. The rest of Mujician, bassist Paul Rogers, drummer Tony Levin and especially - pianist Keith Tippett make the most obvious contributions, as do Philip Gibbs on guitar and autoharp, drummer Mark Sanders and guitarist John Adams who often play in the saxophonist’s trio. Giving Dunmall the space to improvise, conductor Brian Irvine is along to direct the horns: Gethin Liddington and David Priesman on trumpets; Hilary Jeffery, Paul Rutherford and Chris Bridges on trombones; plus Simon Picard and Howard Cottle on tenor saxophones.

Part Two makes the most use of the other players. Parting the smeary horn and brass hocketing, Tippett offers up a brief improv that bounces between a montuno section and near bop, while Dunmall’s concise tenor statements unfold on top of bounces and flams from Levin and Sanders. Later, either Gethin Liddington or David Priesman trade snaking restrained trumpet lines with variegated, cross dynamics from the pianist. Hummingbird swift chromatic runs and slurred high-pitched variation are then exhibited by one of the brassmen, almost a cappella. Subsequently Gibbs or Adams moves up front for Wes Montgomery-like thick octave runs. When the guitarist’s output turns more abstract with counterlines and thumb pops, Dunmall, who has been involved in offbeat theme development throughout, turns to exploded multiphonics, as the two turn into a 21st Century Jim Hall and Sonny Rollins duo. Massed horn interludes sneak in and out of the audio picture just behind the two, climaxing in unison dissonance.

Part Three’s finale is somewhat similar, with seemingly every instrumentalist twisting, turning and screaming at top volume before the piece is cut off. Earlier, however, this cut has exhibited the most 1960s-like echoes. Tippet slathers prepared piano stops from inside his instrument, one of the guitarists produce a vague sitar-like tone and the section’s beginning is almost electronic, featuring a droning strings section with a ponticello bowed bass line on top.

Comparable to his work on Part Two and unlike the warm, Coleman Hawkins-like tenor tones he floats in the first part, Dunmall’s solos are in 1960s mode as well. Howling and pitch shifting, he works his way from screaming altissimo to the bottom of the bow snorts with almost Tranean intensity using smears, doits and glottal punctuation. Along with these staccato flutter tonguing, the section features high-frequency piano comping, chiming and shuffling extended chromatic guitar lines, and times when the other horns combine step by step into a unison climatic harmonic interface.

With textures and timbres often felt as well as heard, Dunmall’s three-part suite manages to replicate the cacophony of war in such a way that the individual expression of the composition gives hope that peace will arrive. What a birthday celebration it is.

--Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. I Wish You Peace Part One 2. I Wish You Peace Part Two 3. I Wish You Peace Part Three

Personnel: Gethin Liddington, David Priesman (trumpets); Hilary Jeffery, Paul Rutherford, Chris Bridges (trombones); Paul Dunmall (soprano and tenor saxophones); Simon Picard, Howard Cottle (tenor saxophones); Keith Tippett (piano); John Adams (guitar); Philip Gibbs (guitar and autoharp); Paul Rogers (bass); Tony Levin and Mark Sanders (drums); Brian Irvine (conductor)

April 4, 2005

PAUL DUNMALL

Something Normal
DUNS Limited Edition double 010

Ever since Fred Guy turned from the banjo to the guitar in Duke Ellington’s orchestra about 1933, the possibilities for banjo in post Trad jazz have been severely limited, or to be truthful, non-existent. Guitarist Chuck Wayne did record a bop-banjo track in the early 1960s -- you could look it up -- but generally if a banjo appeared on a jazz date, so did the New Orleans repertoire.

However British guitarists John Adams -- not to be confused with the American composers of the same name -- and Philip Gibbs don’t miss an opportunity to flail away at the what is probably the only indigenous African-American instrument during this two- CD set of collaborations with woodwind player Paul Dunmall. Adams, who has been part of Dunmall’s working trio, also plays both acoustic and electric guitars and mandolin plus banjo here, while Gibbs, who has recorded duo, trio and quartet sessions with the reed man, solos on both type of guitars and ukulele as well as the banjo. Not to be outdone, Dunmall, best-known as one-quarter of the Mujician group, trots out his flute, bagpipes, soprano and swannee saxophone, preznophone and moxeno -- whatever the last three might be -- on his side of the equation.

Furthermore, you shouldn’t expect any Earl Scruggs-meets-Steve Lacy style tunes here, although there are times that sort of soprano saxophone and banjo operating in improv time concept comes into play. However over the course of 16 tracks, the three men in duos and trios attempt to come up with as many different playing combinations as can be imagined from this SUV load of instruments.

There are times when Gibbs and Adams playing together seem positively conventional, strumming away like Herb Ellis meets Barney Kessel or any other of the so-called Great Guitar meetings, following each other like squirrels chasing around a tree, and prodding Dunmall to moderate into mid-range his soprano tone. One another track the saxist produces some ethereal flute work, probably reminiscent of his stint with harpist Alice Coltrane, while a combination of guitar body pats and string extension allows the others to reference the sounds of sarods, tablas and other South Indian instruments. An exercise in cross-cultural approximation, it, like many of the other tracks, points out that instruments’ limitations are only what you make of them. Nevertheless another tune seems to be made up in equal portions of straightforward guitar strumming and an echoing slide whistle tone -- maybe that’s the sound of the preznophone or the moxeno.

Shorter guitar interludes of two sorts appear among some of the extended improvs. Imagine the folksy tablature demanded during the more self-conscious phrase of the 1960s and 1970s British folk revival and you’ll get an idea of what goes down there, sort of Brownie & Sonny meets Davey Graham. Other pieces are awash with bluesy steel string pulls, bottleneck whines and a quasi-psychedelic wash effect straight out of what could have been the Yardbirds setlist. On some tracks one guitarist will take one role and the other glom onto another style. Considering that he played on Johnny “Guitar” Watson’s AIN’T THAT A BITCH LP back in 1976, these blues-based experiments probably don’t bother the saxophonist.

The best parts of the session, though, come when the players head down into serious improvisation. Sometimes sounding as if he’s blowing cross wise across his flute, Dunmall mostly concentrates on a soprano saxophone tone that ranges from a fire siren shriek to a more modulated, deeper multiphonics. Tongue slaps and reed biting at supersonic speeds also spurs the plectrumists to put aside their inner George Formbys or Jeff Becks. Instead one or both will concentrate on intervals, strumming, picking and exploring the strings below the bridge and in the guitar’s neck, produce hollow body percussion and the sounds of something that could be duct tape being stretched across the studio.

All in all, while an interesting session SOMETHING NORMAL (sic) may be too much of a good thing. With CDRs so economical to produce, excesses as well as essential music get preserved for posterity. Perhaps a better route would have been to create two single CDs -- one with Dunmall and the two guitarists, the other of string duets.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Disc A: 1. Deprived of oxygen 2. Fens to the right, boilerman 3. Hey! He’s eating my teeth 4. Disturbing events 5. I’ll drink to that 6. Discussions with an astral being 7. Full moon creeper 8. Beautiful young lady

Disc B: 1. Come on in the seats are filthy 2. Psycho snuffling 3. The boyman who ate a whole sweet 4. Normal past, out future 5. True phenomenon 6. The ambrosia of kuppaswamy 7. Shiva's gift 8. The final wedge

Personnel: Paul Dunmall (soprano and swannee saxophone, flute, preznophone, moxeno, bagpipes); Philip Gibbs (acoustic, electric guitars, banjo, mandolin); John Adams (acoustic, electric guitars, banjo, ukulele)

April 12, 2002