Dixon Nacey/Kevin Haines: Conversations (digital outlets)

 |   |  1 min read

Dixon Nacey/Kevin Haines: Conversations (digital outlets)

Guitarist Dixon Nacey and bassist Kevin Haines should be familiar to Elsewhere readers, particularly from Rattle albums with drummer Ron Samsom which we have reviewed.

But here – in part prompted by some teaching research Nacey was doing for MAINZ where he now teaches after a period at the University of Auckland – they step out as a duo on an album with an appropriate title.

Nacey has appeared on a number of albums which Elsewhere has reviewed but Haines – as we noted a decade ago in an interview – made his emergence on recordings very late in his career.

Haines is a modest man and so measured, considered, discreet and supportive playing has been a hallmark.

But that takes nothing away from the keen intelligence he shows, especially here in this demanding format where there's no room to retreat or let Nacey's fluid guitar become anchorless without him.

At 80 and as a man of his generation – he grew up playing dances in the Fifties then Auckland clubs like the Montmartre – Haines is right at home on the standards here (among them a lovely low-key Stompin' at the Savoy, the swinging All of You, Miles Davis' Blue in Green and You Go To My Head).

But when Nacey offers his tribute to guitarist John Scofield on his slightly mischievous Sco, the shapeshifting Soar or his rhythmically complex original PB, Haines is there adding sinew and strength.

Haines' original Have You Ever Had an Answer? is a wonderful, melodic mood piece where an unhurried Nacey lets the notes and spaces hang in the air in a way which stops just the right side of melancholy and evokes a wistful quality. It's past midnight and there's something deep and sad to consider, a mood picked up by Haines' solo. It's a piece which cries out for lyrics.

Nacey is one of this country's finest, most subtle guitarists and if this began as something academic it certainly doesn't feel that way: Conversations is full of heart and soul.

Kevin Haines has indicated that this will be his final recording. If so, with this engaging collection and the intuitive interplay with Nacey he couldn't go out with more style, taste or applied wisdom.

.

You can hear this album at Spotify here.

Share It

Your Comments

post a comment

More from this section   Jazz at Elsewhere articles index

LacLu: self-titled (digital outlets)

LacLu: self-titled (digital outlets)

LacLu is guitarist Keith Price (academic/teacher in the jazz faculty at Auckland Uni) and two recent graduates, saxophonist Francesca Parussini and drummer Maximillian Crook, recorded here in the... > Read more

Jasmine Lovell-Smith's Towering Poppies: Yellow Red Blue (Paint Box)

Jasmine Lovell-Smith's Towering Poppies: Yellow Red Blue (Paint Box)

It has been almost five years since we last heard from this New Zealand saxophonist who moved to Connecticut (where studied with the great Anthony Braxton and appeared in one of his ensembles),... > Read more

Elsewhere at Elsewhere

Room 31: Crazy Town (digital outlets)

Room 31: Crazy Town (digital outlets)

Okay, no one would argue this is easy, especially for those whose tastes run to pop tunes or even jazz with sustained melodies. But for others this – on Positive Elevation, a sub-label... > Read more

WOMAD ARTIST 2013; JIMMY CLIFF INTERVIEWED: The outsider

WOMAD ARTIST 2013; JIMMY CLIFF INTERVIEWED: The outsider

Jimmy Cliff – who cut such classic reggae singles as The Harder They Come, Many Rivers to Cross and You Can Get It If You Really Want It back in the Sixties and Seventies – says he... > Read more