Review: Keith Tippett/Paul Dunmall Quintet

The Lantern, Wednesday October 5 

Unsurprisingly, given the cast list, this excellent double-bill was something of a masterclass in the business of musical improvisation. In the contrast between the two performances – one a tight group interaction working from agreed thematic material, the other a ‘blank sheet’ solo piano performance – the processes of individual and collective creativity were laid bare as some stunning music emerged. Saxophonist Paul Dunmall’s quintet arrived for the last of a three date ‘world tour’ prompted by the brief availability of famed US drummer Hamid Drake.

They opened what would be a continuous performance with a surprisingly straight ahead unison bopping theme from Dunmall and trumpeter Percy Pursglove, with Drake immediately energising the pace and locking into Dave Kane’s assertive bass. The piece immediately began to reshape, however, and the players’ individual voices fed this development with Dunhill’s distinctively angular assault balanced by Pursglove’s more cyclical approach to deconstruction. Most impressive, at this stage, was Steve Tromans piano as he gradually claimed more and more of the harmonic and rhythmic space for a densely intricate solo akin to Rachmaninov playing boogie-woogie. After that Dunmall introduced a folk influenced theme on recorder which moved things into more lyrical territory, Drake adding a crafted commentary from the drums, Tromans slowly edging a more anxious tone underneath.

This was the pattern of things – prepared thematic material leading to group improvisation and individual solo playing and finally the introduction of the next theme – and within it all the players got the chance to shine in trios and duos. The sense of collaboration was palpable and at times you could almost hear the listening between the musicians, with rhythmic and dynamic shifts emerging effortlessly while the texture and direction of the music rarely stood still. There were the inevitable bagpipes, of course, as Pursglove added those to his multi-instrumental CV alongside Dunmall’s exotic set which bizarrely resembled an inflated orange penguin in a bikini. That duet provided Drake the opportunity to combine Arabic hand drum with hi-hat for a fine understated solo, the delicate ambience of the piece washed by Tromans sweeping of the piano strings.  The set rounded off into an old-time gospel sound, delivered with feeling by Dunmall’s warm-toned tenor saxophone and no doubt reflecting the ambivalence of a fine quintet playing their last notes together.

After so crowded a stage Keith Tippett – introduced by Paul Dunmall as a legend of composition and improvisation – cast a more solitary figure seated alone at the piano after the interval. He started by setting off a whirring thing inside the piano while picking up the bluesy gospel mood from the previous set, winding that up into a rolling ‘township’ growl that gradually incorporated the rattling buzz of the obstructed strings. The music grew more tightly timed, and he adjusted objects to allow different distortions to arise, deftly using the contrast between full-toned and altered strings to create contrasting progressions and dialogues within the piece. 

There was a sense of the music being structured inmovements, as in classical music, and if at times Tippett seemed to hold back and reappraise what he was playing at others he seemed to be racing to catch up with his own ideas. Some moments recalled Stravinsky, others Thelonious Monk, but there was always a Tippett integrity to a piece which never lacked rhythm (albeit that could mean a clock ticking, a heart beating or a juggernaut descending) and it was hard to credit that wealth of ideas as coming from spontaneous composition. The piece eventually (and literally) wound down with a duet between musical boxes staggering to a halt and final silence. The pianist discretely allowed himself to cough before later revealing that he was ‘not feeling too good tonight’ but if the man was under the weather the music most certainly was not and, taken with the quintet set, it had been a very memorable evening of improvised performance.