Graham Reid | | 1 min read
JC Ballad
In this country's numerically small but busy jazz community, this album was almost inevitable: two mid-career performers sensitively enjoying each other's company.
Both players have appeared many times but separately at Elsewhere: alto saxophonist Chisholm here, pianist Crayford here. But we could find no album of them together, which makes this album of seven duets especially welcome.
Because no composer credits are given we must assume each piece belongs to both and there's certainly a sense of equals at play.
These are not purely impromptu improvisations – the delightful JC Ballad is clearly a well thought out and perhaps even a charted composition – and there is an appreciable sense of reserve where each player gives the other space on tunes which are almost introverted (Wright's Way).
And Chisholm plays such a delicate melody on Rework – picked up in a spare solo Crayford – it almost invites lyrics.
The equally tuneful Alone in the Wilderness has the kind of icy spaciousness and listless romanticism of an ECM album under that title, and Crayford's solo passages are almost heartbreakingly beautiful in their reverie and reflection.
Release And Return is another in the lineage of recent duet albums by locals: Dixon Nacey and Kevin Haines' Conversations; Kim Paterson and Alex Venting's similarly titled Conversations.
If this is an emerging convention of collaborations, then it is to be encouraged because so far all three – including this one – have offered reflective, often neatly understated, dialogues.
Conversations, if you will.
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You can hear and buy this album at Rattle Records' bandcamp site here
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