Dunmall’s coming to Vision this year!! Though I’m a fairly new Dunmall fan, considering he’s been on the scene as a solo artist since the middle 1980s, I’ve been waiting some four years to hear him live.
His CDR label, Duns Limited Edition, has also reached its 60th release, so I thought I’d dig back in the archive a bit to number 23, this tempestuous live date from September 2002. These veteran collaborators sometimes sound like a regular trio, or almost, during the single fifty-four-minute improvisation. Those moments of registral and timbral familiarity are quite rare as Dunmall and co. switch between all things struck, blown and plucked in gusts of dynamic diversity.
It all begins rather threateningly as Dunmall’s bagpipes blister and pierce along the thunder hurled by Gibbs and Rogers. It dies down eventually, calms so completely in fact that only an apprehensive drone leads into Dunmall’s trademark melodica, which itself contains myriad slants and sharp curves. Along the way, the Duck goes forth, manned skillfully in arco and pizz mode by one of the most versatile bassists playing today. Gibbs hammers with his usual intense subtlety, numerous timbre and pitch gradations in every gesture.
The Duns series constitutes a really fascinating journey. Along with some of the more recent entries, Quaker Center is one of the most fearless, and it’s one of my favorites for that reason. Some are beautiful, some are spare and all are worth hearing, but few plumb the uncompromising psychological depth so fiercely. Keep em coming!
~ Marc Medwin
Posted by derek on June 8, 2008 8:11 PMNever heard this one, but I love this trio.
Posted by: damon Smith at June 10, 2008 11:03 AMI envy you getting to catch him at Vision, Marc. His performance there several years back with Rogers and Hemingway was tremendous.
Posted by: walto at June 11, 2008 7:46 AM.................................................. © 2003 - 2006 bagatellen ..................................................