Artist: Stan Tracey

Date of Release: 25/02/2008

Catalogue no: RSJ105

Label: RESTEAMED

Price: £13.99

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Track Listing

Recently unearthed recording of a live concert at the ICA in London in 1977 by two of the most distinguished pianists on the British jazz scene, Stan Tracey and, from another generation, the acclaimed improvisor, Keith Tippett. As ‘TNT’, the only recording of the duo, is out of print this previously unreleased session gives us opportunity to experience the spontaneous creativity of two jazz greats at the height of their powers..

Reviews

29/02/2008 John Fordham, The Guardian

On Stan Tracey's triumphant Barbican concert at the end of January, the 81-year-old pianist/composer ran through most manifestations of his talents. But Tracey's all-improv duet with fellow-pianist Keith Tippett, a partnership untried in 15 years, stole the show, exposing new musical and emotional depths in Tracey that orthodox jazz doesn't often draw from him. Not many examples exist on record, so this previously unreleased set at London's ICA in 1977 is a precious item. There's not much in the way of conventionally jazzy licks, but the music is playful, conversational and, at times, unsentimentally romantic and warm. Tippett frequently favours fast, whirring note-cycles that Tracey bangs hard chords against, or seamlessly droning low-end thunders that Tracey sometimes joins and sometimes illuminates with glittering treble sounds. At times they get close to each other with a haunting sympathy. On Vela Pulsar, there's an uncanny empathy to the way they play percussive sections together and then stop as if a switch was thrown, or join on a tone-centred drone like an orchestral string section. Streams of intertwining sound become a cat-and-mouse game in Parallax, and the title track has a long opening section as pure, pulsating texture before tentative shoots of melody start to grow. Occasionally there are snatches of blues phrasing, and it evolves into a highly rhythmic kind of lateral swing. Supernova is a vivid insight into the infrequent work of one of the great improvising partnerships.