Jean-Luc Guionnet & Lê Quan Ninh

A long overdue meeting/recording, Those Whose Dads Never Met bring together two French improvised music experts for a dialogue briefly mooted eight years previously. Alto saxophonist Jean-Luc Guionnet is part of many musical situations from compositions, pipe-organ performances and membership in bands such as Hubbub. Equally as accomplished, percussionist Lê Quan Ninh, plays contemporary notated music, works with dance companies and has been part of free music group with Michel Doneda and others. These five duets involve quick and sympathetic interface with the percussionist contributing melodic as well as rhythmic passages, while the saxophonist’s statements include as many harsh and discordant embellishments as linear expositions.

Ninh’s complementary textures invariably include some variant on an encompassing drum pulses and resonations. But he’s just as apt to jolt the output in the form of cymbal scratches, furniture-moving like rasps, cogwheel crackles, metallic scrapes, material-rending gashes and wood block smacks. Meanwhile, although Guionnet frequently pivots to extended mewls, tongue stops, nephritic gurgles, ear-splitting barks and altissimo flattement, they don’t dominate his playing. That’s because he also emphasizes passages when his measured in-and-out breaths, solid reed buzzes and straightforward trills contributes to the session’s linear propulsion. Notwithstanding the continuous swerves into unexpected sequences where cymbal-top drumstick scratching is challenged by aviary reed flutters or when seemingly unstoppable saxophone trilling is broken up by blacksmith-strength drum pounding, measured tone intertwining is maintained throughout.

Hinted at in previous motifs, the concluding “met whose never dads those” solidifies the duet. Extended over almost 25½ minutes of toneless breaths, renal cries and hard slurps from the saxophonist alongside rim shots, mechanized rolls and repeated plops from the percussionist, a slowly developing climax interspaced with silences is attained. Stripping down each player’s alternately rhythmic and lyrical outbursts, individual textures become almost identical by the conclusion.

A notable instance of in-the-moment responsive improvisation, it’s hoped that a rematch won’t take nearly another decade to take place.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. those met whose dads never 2. whose dads never those met 3. dads met those never whose 4. never whose those met dads 5. met whose never dads those

Personnel: Jean-Luc Guionnet (alto saxophone) and Lê Quan Ninh (percussion)