Phil Minton Quartet - Slur

Emanem 4140

Time to put my cards right on the countertop and cop to the fact that Phil Minton’s name in the leader position on this disc gave me pause regarding what otherwise appears a stellar combination of free improvisers. After spending some time with set, several features succeeded in scuttling this admittedly faulty prejudice to a dark corner of my consciousness. To begin with, Minton tones down his more histrionic impulses without boxing up the sense of libertine spontaneity that makes his fre-associative vocalizations so idiosyncratic and dramatic. His vaguely linguistic ululations and exhortations have an actual instrumental acuity to them, an aspect not always so uniformly present in my past encounters with his work. Next, each of the four players approach music making from positions of equal footing, demonstrating a commitment to creating and sustaining a responsive ensemble sound. Minton sputters and whispers on the opening “Almost There”, but just as readily defers to his colleagues, each of whom adds their own fluid input in what feels like just the proper measure.

The outcome is a odd sort of chamber music that exudes both beauty and ingenuity. Weston’s clipped keyboard runs on “Lower Down” ricochet off Turner’s spaced kit clatterings, Butcher adding brief reed pops and putterings. Minton expounds in a brief outburst of flexing cheeks and flicking tongue before going silent. Later, he speaks in a weird warbling argot against Butcher’s muted trills and a cascade of piano clusters, the piece becoming porous with silence creeping in at the edges. “Higher” starts as a gorgeous lullaby of free-floating piano tinklings, bowed cymbals and Minton’s eerie croon, rising to a point of swift dissipation. “A Bit More” is beset by faux airplane propeller noises and a rush of wind shear percussion prior to a string of pauses that cut through the piece like holes in Swiss cheese. Minton has the wise sense to sit out and clam up when the situation dictates as during the middle section of “Far Off” where Turner and Butcher engage in some particularly intimate interplay.

The other ace in Minton’s pocket lies in the acoustics achieved by engineer Steve Lowe’s recording. Each musician is clearly discernable in his particular space and it makes for a listening experience refreshingly devoid of clutter or compression. As divulged above, I’m not normally a fan of Minton’s vociferations, but this set comes the closest to making me a believer in his quixotic improv persona. The faith so obviously placed in him by his accomplished partners here certainly helps.

~ Derek Taylor