HESSION / WILKINSON / FELL – Foom! Foom! (1992)

Label: Bruce's Fingers – BF5
Format: CD, Album; Country: UK - Released: 1992
Style: Free Improvisation
Recorded on 20th & 21st February 1992 at Kite Recording Studio, Cambridge.
Liner Notes – Ben Watson
Photography By – Jo Fell
Producer – Roger Chatterton
Written-By – Alan Wilkinson, Paul Hession, Simon H. Fell

This album dates from the early days of digital recording, but the sound is excellent, specially for this occasion remastering in the ART&JAZZ Studio, by VITKO.

The first studio recording of the Hession/Wilkinson/Fell trio. Despite the group's reputation, this CD contains much unexpected beauty and delicacy.

What can you say when you get three jobs like this together who just want to blow the gates off of heaven every time they get together? Is it possible to sit and write a close analysis of every wrapped encounter on the bandstand, analyzing each improvisational encounter and how one of these complete free-for-alls is different from one another? I suppose it is, but why? This trio -- with Wilkinson on soprano, alto, and baritone; Simon Fell on bass; and Paul Hession on drums -- would be insulted if they weren't bored to tears reading such a thing first. This is extreme music made for extreme ears. That said, in the symbiotic interrelationships that are formed, torn apart, and re-formed among the fissures these tunes create, there is a logic at work, one that relies heavily on the idea that listeners don't really know what harmony, rhythm, and melody are yet, and they are still working toward that idea -- albeit in a violent and hilarious way. This is a band who has no trouble making an audience sit up and take notice either on the stand or in their living rooms, and the reason for that is simple: Nothing about this music is compromised or half-baked; it's furious with humor built in, and it's knotty, scaly, confrontational stuff played with warmth and verve. Highly recommended.

_ By Thom Jurek (AMG)



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GEORGE HASLAM / BORAH BERGMAN / PAUL HESSION – The Mahout (2004)

Label: Slam Productions – SLAMCD 318 

Format: CD, Album; Country: UK - Released: 1 March 2004

Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation

Studio set of uncompromising improvised music by the "Mahout" trio recorded June 2003, together with solo tracks by the three members.

Tracks 1, 4, 7 on 12 June 2003 at SRT Studios, St Ives, England
Track 2 on 23 October 2003 at Bullpen Studio, Oxfordshire
Tracks 3, 6 on 4, 10 and 15 September 2003 at Harvestworks Studio, NYC
Track 5 on 15 October 2003 at Pendle Hawk Studio, Colne, Lancashire
The CD was compiled and mastered in November and December 2003 by Eric Smith at Bullpen Studio, Oxfordshire, England.

Note:
The 7 tracks on this new album include 3 trio pieces and solo tracks by each member, the intention being to give each individual more space outside the hectic free improvisation of the trio.
The trio tracks were recorded (June 2003) on the first occasion the three musicians played together – each eager to play but at the same time wanting very much to hear what the others had to say. The studio session was a high-energy affair, both mentally and physically draining, leaving the solo tracks to be recorded at later dates. In a much calmer environment the 3 musicians later took advantage of the space and freedom of the unaccompanied solo to make their own statements – creating a short gallery of self-portraits.

Review:

Energy Jazz is alive and kicking! Slam label boss George Haslam has long had a knack for creating challenging situations for himself, and this robust threeway encounter proves a success. He’s a restless player, whose avid search for new groupings and apparent mania for diving into seemingly inhospitable idioms recalls Herr Brötzmann (whose current instrumental druthers Haslam shares). Hession’s long tenure with the British avant-garde has found him playing mostly in the circle surrounding his colleague Simon H. Fell, with whom Hession has recorded some seriously hair-raising sessions. His fierce, frequently busy playing can often be mistaken for lacking detail and subtlety; in fact, Hession’s imagination (and hands, of course) simply move faster than most listener’s ears (hear this in his excellent solo piece, "The Varmint"). His partnership with Haslam was cemented on their 2002 duo album Pendle Hawk Carapace. Given the stylistic proclivities of two of these players, the fleet- fingered Bergman naturally fits in well with these fellows. The tart-toned tarogato dominates the rambunctious opener, which only occasionally gives you room to breathe. These guys simply launch themselves forward as soon as the tape is rolling, constructing and destroying ideas and exchanges with insane speed. The velocity and relentlessness of this music isn’t too far off from Death Metal, believe it or not. But despite this intensity, the lugubrious baritone opening to "M. E. W." gives a clue to the emotional heart of this music (although when Haslam blows both his horns at once it’s certainly an abstracted emotionalism). This proves only a brief interlude as Bergman comes crashing out to begin "Streams." The density and complexity of his phrasing, and the rapidity with which his ideas are pursued, are matched on this solo track only by the quality of his construction (since there is a clear, if unorthodox logic to this creation; it’s easier to sense this on the reflective "Dusk," which is almost like listening to one of Bergman’s knuckle-busters slowed down to 16rpm). When the trio reconvenes for the following track, there is a considerable clarity to the piece, with each musician pursuing a different and contrasting tempo which overlap and dissolve.
An invigorating recording.

_ By JASON BIVINS, Cadence, August 2004



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FRODE GJERSTAD / NICK STEPHENS / PAUL HESSION – Live At The Termite Club (2003)

Label: Loose Torque – LT 009
Format: CD, Album; Country: UK - Released: 2003
Style: Free Improvisation
Recorded live at the Termite Club, Leeds 2003
Artwork – Fay Stephens

Description : Recorded live at the Termite Club in Leeds in September of 2003 and featuring Frode Gjerstad on clarinets and alto sax, Nick Stephens on bass and Paul Hession on drums. Finland's finest free sax player, Frode Gjerstad, never seems to rest as he can be found on 40+ discs from a half dozen different labels. His long-term relationship with John Stevens & Johnny Dyani in Detail and 3 discs with Derek Bailey, remain amongst his most visible successes. He chooses to work with the best players from around the world: Bobby Bradford, Borah Bergman, Peter Brotzmann, Paal Nilssen-Love, William Parker & Hamid Drake, to name a few.
Here with matches wits with some of the UK's best, Nick Stephens on acoustic bass and Paul Hession on drums. Consisting of two long pieces (25 1/2 & 37 minutes) and one shorter piece and well-recorded as are all of Nick Stephens' superb Loose Torque releases. "Meeting at the Adelphi" begins quietly with Frode playing a great deal of eerie clarinet as Nick bows expressively, the piece is filled with suspense. Paul Hession, also takes his time and delicately knits with his equally subtle drumming. Nick's immense bass is again at the center of the storm as it builds through intense sections. This mighty trio obviously mean business as they take us all for wonderful ride up and down the mountains and valleys, there is no turning back as soar to the stratosphere and beyond. - BLG

Note:

FRODE GJERSTAD is one of the few Norwegian musicians playing modern improvised music outside the 'ECM-school'. He has chosen to play with foreign musicians because there is no tradition in Norway for free improvised music.

His relationship with John Stevens which started in 1981 and lasted up until Stevens' death in 1994 was of great importance both musically as well as on a personal level. Through Stevens, he became acquainted with the playing of some of the finest British improvisers. His longstanding group with Stevens, 'Detail', started as a trio in 1981 with keyboardist Eivin One Pedersen, though Johnny Mbizo Dyani came in on bass in 1982 and Pedersen left later that year. The group played mainly as a trio until Dyani's death in 1986, though they did invite occasional guests to fill out the lineup; they undertook a tour of Britain in 1986 as a quartet with Bobby Bradford on cornet. Bradford did another tour with Detail with Paul Rogers on bass and then one with Kent Carter on bass; a quartet tour of Norway was organised with Billy Bang in 1989. The group then continued as a trio with Carter till 1994 when Stevens died.

Frode Gjerstad has also been active, running a group of very young Norwegian musicians, Circulasione Totale Orchestra, where he is dealing with electric instruments and modern rock- oriented rhythms. He has used the band to present his own compositions as well as a workshop and place for young people to get to know free improvisation. The band presented a commissioned work at the Molde Festival in 1989 with a 13 man band combining free improvisastions, compositions as well as rapping and scratching (three horns, three bassists, three drummers, accordion, guitar, a rapper and a scratcher).

His current groups include: the Frode Gjerstad Trio with William Parker,bass and Rashid Bakr, drums; the Circulasione Totale Orchestra with young Norwegian musicians; and a quartet completed by Hasse Poulsen, guitars, Nick Stephens, bass, and Louis Moholo, drums. Frode Gjerstad has received several grants from differnt foundations and has been very active in the Norwegian Jazzmusicians Federation as well as in the committee for the Norwegian Contemporary Music Federation. He runs his own label, Circulasione Totale.

NICK STEPHENS - Born Sutton Coldfield 1946. Double bass, bass guitar.

Nick Stephens started his first group aged 14, playing bass guitar, with schoolfriend guitarist Dave Cole. Through their teenage years they played the pubs, clubs, dance halls and US Bases of the UK and Europe. At 21 he returned home, bought a double bass and joined the Midlands Youth Jazz Orchestra. Here he met and played with Dave Panton and Jan Steele. And then, Stephens, says, "One afternoon a hurricane of energy with a snare drum under his arm and the look of Rasputin, burst into the orchestra rehearsal room. It was my first experience of a John Stevens workshop."

In 1975 Nick Stephens took his bass guitar to Riverside Studio for a blow with John Stevens and Trevor Watts who were re-forming 'Away' This marked the beginning of a long friendship and musical partnership between Stevens and Stephens. A record deal with the Phonogram Vertigo label produced 3 albums and 2 singles, one of which - 'Annie' - an Alternative Charts topper, featured John Martyn. Away made regular radio broadcasts and appeared twice on BBC Two's Old Grey Whistle Test. They played two national tours of large rock venues - one with The Jazz Crusaders and opposite Ornette Coleman at London's Victoria - but John never lost sight of the collective, group improvisation ethic that he had first nurtured in the SME and at The Little Theatre Club. Nick continued to work with John until his death in 1994 playing in The Dance Orchestra, Folkus, Freebop, Fast Colour and umpteen small group gigs and workshops.

In 1988 Stephens received his first of two Arts Council Bursaries for composition and formed the Nick Stephens Septet. In 1994 Stephens and Frode Gjerstad formed Calling Signals with Paul Rutherford and percussionist Terje Issungset. Alongside Stephens and Gjerstad, later incarnations of the group have featured: Louis Moholo-Moholo, Hasse Poulsen, Paal Nillsen- Love, Lol Coxhill and Jon Corbett. Stephens is also a member of Gjerstad's international improvising orchestra the Circulasione Total Orchestra.

In 2005, to make available music that has escaped documentation and as an outlet for new recordings, Nick Stephens started the Loose Torque label.



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HESSION, WILKINSON, FELL – The Horrors Of Darmstadt (1994)

Label: Shock – SX025 CD
Format: CD, Album; Country: UK - Released: 1994
Style: Free Jazz, free improvisation
Recordings were from a live show at The Termite Club, Leeds 7th June 1993.
Artwork By [Cover Art & Lettering] – Gina Southgate
Mastered By – Denis Blackham
Photography – Jo Fell
Recorded By – Alan Wilkinson, Ben Watson


Excerpts from reviews:

"Distinctive purveyors of improvised music. The power and passion of their playing called to mind the spirit of 60s US free jazz; their ferocious abstraction had much in common with European improvisers like Brötzmann/van Hove/Bennink and Schlippenbach/Parker/Lovens."
_ Chris Blackford, THE WIRE

Improv trio made their debut at the Termite Festival in 1989 and has now toured UK four times. Appeared at Sound Symposium Newfoundland (Canada) in 1994. Toured with Joe Morris in 1996. 'Revolution in sound…the music of the real underground'
_ Ben Watson

"Spontaneous music of a scorching and unrelenting intensity.....conversational music of the most intuitive eloquence.....unquenchable energy.....There probably isn't such a thing as state- of-the-art free music, but as a term of convenient endearment, it's close enough."
_ John Fordham THE GUARDIAN

A trio that has consistently garnered superlatives from critics. The Penguin Guide to Jazz - notoriously sparing with its maximum four stars ("outstanding, demanding a place in any comprehensive collection") - gave its four star accolade to no less than three albums by Hession/Wilkinson/Fell. Although only Fell ’ s bass is amplified, the trio is famously loud. "Raging, exploding tumultuous improvisation music by one of the greatest groups in the music today. It ’ s an almost unique experience at a time when acoustic free-jazz has dropped many of its confrontational aspects: these men revivify the intensities of Ayler, Brötzmann and others in the small but noble tradition of great noise." Penguin Guide to Jazz. "A trio with a growing notoriety for a furious brand of free jazz."
_ THE GUARDIAN

Alan Wilkinson (b. London 1954) first made his presence felt as part of the burgeoning Leeds music scene of the 80s, founding the Termite Club and forming long-standing liasons with Hession and Fell amongst others, while developing a highly personal, vocalized and energetic approach to the saxophone. Re-locating to London in 1990 he currently works in trios with John Edwards and Steve Noble, James Dunn and John Bisset, as well as collaborations with Chris Corsano, Spiritualized, NY duo Talibam! and Spanish group Laxula; he also and runs the flimflam improvisation club in London. Other collaborations have included Derek Bailey, Peter Brotzmann, Willi Kellers, Alex Maguire's Cat o'Nine Tails, Sunny Murray, Thurston Moore and Lee Ronaldo, Eddie Prevost, Stefan Jaworzyn, Steve Hubback and Spring Heel Jack. He has appeared at many national and international festivals and is featured on numerous recordings.

Simon H. Fell is a composer and double bassist active in free improvisation and contemporary jazz and chamber music. He has worked in small or medium groups with John Butcher, Peter Brötzmann, Lol Coxhill, Billy Jenkins, Joe Morris, Keith Tippett, John Zorn, Derek Bailey, Joey Baron, Elliott Sharp, Billy Bang, Christian Marclay and numerous others, and is a founder member of London Improvisers Orchestra . Other regular groupings include SFQ , IST , The ZFP Quartet and many more. He has presented compositions for improvisers at the LMC Festival, the Termite Festival, the Frakture Festival, Leo Records' Unsung Music Festival, Freedom of the City Festival and on many other occasions. His discography includes over 80 recordings. "A major contemporary musician" - The Penguin Guide To Jazz On CD.

Paul Hession was born in Leeds in 1956. After early singing experience as a boy soprano in a church choir and experiments with the guitar, he took up drumming at the age of 15 and since then has played and broadcast in many European & Scandinavian countries as well as Argentina, Mexico, Cuba, USA & Canada. He has played with many of the major figures on the free music scene (for example; Derek Bailey, Evan Parker, Paul Rutherford, Lol Coxhill, Sunny Murray, Marshall Allen, Frode Gjerstad, Peter Kowald, Joe McPhee, Borah Bergman, Otomo Yoshihide as well as his old friends Alan Wilkinson, Simon Fell, Mick Beck & Hans- Peter Hiby). Collaborators from a different scene include Tom Jenkinson (Squarepusher), Bill Orcutt (of Harry Pussy) and techno musician/dj Paul Woolford. He is known to relish the interaction of collective music-making, but also responds to the challenge of solo performance.



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HESSION, WILKINSON, FELL – Two Falls & A Submission (2010)

Label : Bo'Weavil Recordings - weavil44cd
Format: CD, Album; Country: UK - Released: 2012
Style: Free Improvisation
Recorded 31 March 2010 at The Queen's Head, Monmouth, Wales
Composed By – Alan Wilkinson, Paul Hession, Simon H. Fell
Design, Photography By [Image Manipulation] – Damien Beaton
Engineer – Sean McGowan; Painting – Gina Southgate


Review:

The trio of Alan Wilkinson on alto and baritone saxophones, Simon H. Fell on double bass, and Paul Hession on drums first came together to play improvised music in 1989, releasing their first album, Bogey ’ s (Bruce ’ s Fingers) in 1991. Two Falls & a Submission was recorded in Monmouth, Wales, in March 2010 during their reunion tour of the UK to mark their 21st anniversary.

In their heyday in the ’ 90s, the threesome was an awesome prospect both live and on disc; all three played with the kind of wild freedom that had characterized ’ 60s free jazz (yes, jazz, not improv) but had not been heard much since. Around 2000, after the release of St. John ’ s on the Ecstatic Peace label (proprietor Thurston Moore was a fan), they went their separate ways. When their 2010 reunion tour was announced, many wondered if the three would still generate their former fire.

They need not have worried. Right from the first notes of the opener, “ First Fall, ” the years fall away as all three simultaneously hit top gear in a bravura display of high-energy improvisation. Wilkinson immediately grabs the limelight, straight away playing with a raw intensity that other saxophonists might hit once a night; for Wilkinson, that is the baseline from which he then builds. Alternating between saxophones, he solos relentlessly, keeping a seamless barrage of phrases flowing from his horns. When he does intermittently pause from blowing, he is likely to pour forth improvised, wordless vocals with as much gusto as he plays.

It seems entirely appropriate that Two Falls & a Submission takes its title from the parlance of all-in wrestling. Hession and Fell never act as support players. Throughout, the drummer matches Wilkinson ’ s intensity, never letting the pace flag so as to keep the pressure up. At times it sounds as if he and Wilkinson are involved in a one-on-one duel to see who will crack first; of course, neither of them does. For his part, Fell stokes the fire with his own propulsive phrases, constantly driving things forward and holding them together. The end result is an amalgam of three equal contributions that fit together perfectly; the absence of any one of them would make the whole feel incomplete.

Even when the three move down a gear — as they sometimes must, given the relentless pace they set — they still retain all the qualities that make this trio special: intensity, togetherness, equality. Awesome stuff.

_ By John Eyles (DUSTED REVIEW)
   date: Jan. 24, 2012

Excerpt from:
Ian Mann on the music of the extraordinary improvising saxophonist Alan Wilkinson

..." I’ll admit that I don’t always find improv the easiest of genres to get on with, I like the idea of it but don’t always find it easy to listen to, particularly on record. However it is thrilling to watch the process live, the thinking in the moment, the visual impact of extended instrumental techniques, the things that can’t always be appreciated on radio broadcasts or on album. Wilkinson initially requested that I cover “ Practice ” , an album of solo saxophone improvisations but I suggested that as a relative novice to the genre I might get along rather better with this. Good move. It’s satisfying to find an improv record I can really identify with, partly the result of having witnessed the members of the trio live (particularly the extraordinary Wilkinson, I’ve never heard another saxophone player quite like him) and partly the resonance that comes from the recording being located at the Queens Head.
Another analogy often used to describe the improv process is “ painting pictures in sound ” and there’s a certain irony in the fact that Wilkinson trained as a painter completing a Fine Arts degree at Leeds University before turning to music. Art’s loss was surely music’s gain.
Recommended, but not for the faint-hearted."

by: Ian Mann, Friday, May 18, 2012




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JOE McPHEE and PAUL HESSION – A Parallax View (2006)

Label: Slam Productions – SLAMCD 268
Format: CD, Album
Country: UK; Released:2006
Style: Free Jazz, Contemporary Jazz, Free Improvisation

Recorded on 20th January 2003 at Bluecoat, Liverpool (Frakture) (tracks 2, 4, 5) and 21st January 2003 at The Adelphi, Leeds (Termite Club) (tracks 1, 3, 6)

Drums – Paul Hession (tracks: 1, 3 to 6)
Soprano Saxophone – Joe McPhee (tracks: 4, 6)
Tenor Saxophone – Joe McPhee (tracks: 1 to 5)
Voice – Paul Hession (tracks: 2)


Review:

After playing a handful of performances with saxophonist Joe McPhee in the United States, British drummer Paul Hession brought his new friend to England for four appearances in 2003, highlights from two of which were captured for A Parallax View. The duo apparently struck up an immediate rapport because this disc personifies the firepower, depth and dynamic sense found in the strongest free improvisation.

In “ Tipping Point, ” McPhee begins in a gruff mood, taking flying leaps from the top to bottom of his tenor, spurned by Hession ’ s press rolls. But after pushing things to the extreme, the saxophonist pulls back around the four-minute mark and glides into a slow, probing melody. The combination of moods serves to make the final product all the more powerful. In “ From Eremite to Termite, ” he takes an alternate approach, twisting a spiritual melody with each repetition, bending and squeezing the notes for a dramatic, soulful effect. After a brief spoken word introduction, “ Blue Coat Blue Collar ” features a solo tenor that finds McPhee vocalizing and blowing simultaneously. Hession gets his own wide-open space during the 14- minute “ Evocation ” and displays a spastic Tony Oxley-style approach to his kit in “ Love is (Like Walking Naked on a Razor Blade), ” a title which presumably plays into the fun these two had while creating this music.

By Mike Shanley, JazzTimes



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Re: HWF – Hession, Wilkinson, Fell – Bogey ’ s (1991, Re-1999)

Label: Bruce ’ s Fingers; Catalog#: BF 31
Country: UK / 1999; Format. CD, Album
Jazz Style: avant-garde, free improvisation, Contemporary Jazz, Free Jazz
Recorded at Bogey ’ s, Huddersfield on 11 June 1991
(74 mins.) in jewel box © Bruce ’ s Fingers 1991

The recording that launched this trio with a bang. Strong, hard, inventive & witty.

Reviews:

“Exceptional acoustic maelstrom . . . . . People who suggest that British jazz always lags behind American innovators should check this date. Their music is often categorised as ‘ free improvisation ’ but really is state-of-the-art jazz, blindingly swift and responsive. ” Ben Watson ARTSCENE “ They left the audience in a state of shock. Whiteheat improvisation, full throttle free jazz out of Archie Shepp 1969, but somehow more so: more venom, more noise, more discord, more evil heat . . . . . simultaneous musicality and cathartic excess . . . . . we are talking the essence of what makes jazz great here.”
_ Ben Watson, THE WIRE

“Thrillingly intense recording by the inflammatory trio, a band that outdoes the old Brötzmann groups for sheer firepower. An outstanding record that demands a place in any comprehensive collection.”
_ THE PENGUIN GUIDE TO JAZZ ON CD, LP & CASSETTE

“Back in 1991, Hession/Wilkinson/Fell played music of such rolling majesty and power that only national stereotypes (Americans play Free Jazz, Europeans play Improv) explain why the trio wasn ’ t hailed by the press everywhere. Paul Hession ’ s waves of cymbals and drums still sound deliriously beautiful, like some natural force. Alan Wilkinson ’ s donkey-bray baritone and lyrical alto rev like a Harley-Davidson, and Simon Fell ’ s bass stokes the fire with exceptional understanding of climactic modulation. Apologists for the uneven blow-outs currently promoted as Ecstatic Jazz in the States say that music as finely-wrought as the late Coltrane isn ’ t possible for lesser mortals. Check this out and explode a few prejudices.”
_ Ben Watson, HIFI NEWS & RECORD REVIEW

“How to say it – there is so little that can compare to this. This trio, on this night in 1991, showed up for a regular gig in the tiny town of Huddersfield, and proceeded to burn the place down with their music. From the opening moments when Wilkinson and Fell crank through a modal elegiac series of motifs before allowing Hession to up the ante and take the sound to the margin and over, there is no doubt about the singular quality of the communication here. Wilkinson in particular is simply at the top of his form, long, fluid legato lines that turn in on themselves and create a fire in Fell that we have seldom heard in recordings. His pizzicato work is driven with a dervish-like intensity that moves through scalar variations on Eastern modal tonalities as Hession moves into overdrive in providing a driving, dancing, whirling support. This was a set that probably left everybody in the audience and on the stand breathless and wondering what transpired; it certainly happens on the disc. This set is truly unbelievable and truly indispensable.”
_ Thom Jurek, ALL MUSIC GUIDE



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