Alive in the east?

"Binker and Moses (...) can best be described as playing semi-free spiritual jazz. Alive In The East? is the group's third album, following Dem Ones (2015) and Journey To The Mountain Of Forever (2017) ... As on Journey, the group includes saxophonist Evan Parker and trumpeter Byron Wallen, representing older generations of London experimentalists, and harpist Tori Handsley and drummer Yussef Dayes, contemporaries of Golding and Boyd. Handsley (...) is remarkable. Her approach here has little connection with Alice Coltrane or Alina Bzhezhinska, eschewing glissandi and approaching the harp instead like a twangtastic, acoustic bass guitar. The music's default position is ferocity. But discordancy is not a feature - the emphasis is on solo rather than collective improvisation, so avoiding the cacophony that is a characteristic of much full-on free jazz. Jumping-off points are provided as much by Boyd's beats as Goldings's harmolodic centres. Motor rhythms are ever present, notsomuch grooves as urgent pulses, pushing the music forward. The result is a whirlwind. It can rip the hair clean off the back of your neck".

Læs anmeldelse

"London's Binker Golding and Moses Boyd [join] a lineage of great jazz sax/drum duos that goes back to Coltrane/Ali, Roach/Braxton and Garrett/Watts. "Alive..." picks up where the collaborative half of last year's epic "Journey To The Mountain Of Forever" left off, it's two-drum, two-sax, trumpet and harp combo balancing fast-shift grooves with unremitting energy before a whooping, hollering Stokes Newington crowd. There's plenty to cheer as Golding's galvanising, soulful rich tenor and Boyd's bewitching, sensitive percussive ticks lead these experienced improvisers to pearl invention from tiny seeds, weaving memorable tunes from often challenging abstractions. Bold enough to start with a drum solo, brashly oblivious of comfort zones, Binker, Moses and friends consistently conjure a heady ambrosia".

"British saxophonist Evan Parker, together with trumpeter Byron Wallen, harpist Tori Handsley, and drummer Yussef Dayes (...) reunite with the dynamic duo to continue where they left off, creating arresting tapestries of sound, where their improvisations intertwine to etch vivid aural pictures. Voyd's and Dayes' dual drums offer a fluid dialogue throughout: a percolating current of percussive polyrhythms. The sextet's collective passion is almost palpable, even on more subdued pieces like "Mishaku's Tale", where Handsleys lyrical harp is spotlighted, and the gentle, reposeful "The Death Of Light", whose beauty offers a brief moment of respite ... This album shows that contemporary British jazz is in robust health".