This stunning collection of saxophone and trombone duos was recorded at the
Art Workers' Guild
in London by
Adam Skeaping
back in May 1980 and originally released on
Incus
, a label that
Evan Parker
ran jointly with guitarist
Derek Bailey
. The fact that there's no mention of this on this reissue on
Parker
's own
PSI
imprint testifies to the frosty relations that still exist between the two giants of improvised music. Fortunately, trombonist
George Lewis
has remained on good terms with both; in point of fact, it's hard to see how anyone could dislike
Lewis
if his rambunctious virtuosity and good-humored mastery of the trombone are anything to go by. He can take it up into soprano sax country or plunge it into the piano bottom octave register at will, pop, plop and crackle like a toyshop and go head to head with
's legendary circular breathing.
's early 1980s albums mark the boundary between his early, angular playing (traces of a
jazz
past are never far from the surface) and the awesome virtuosity of his later work, especially on soprano. The re-release of this album is cause for celebration indeed -- would that
could use his good offices to negotiate a
/
Bailey
truce, and with it the reissue of their mythic and magnificent first
outing,
The Topography of The Lungs
. ~ Dan Warburton