Catherine Sikora, Susan Alcorn, Filament, Relative Pitch ***
We liked Susan Alcorn quintet album Pedernal in 2020. While this duo recording maybe isn't quite as weighty, however, in the case of Catherine Sikora if you are into imaginative players like Rachel Musson, then you will easily appreciate what …
Published: 16 Mar 2024.Updated: 41 days.
We liked Susan Alcorn quintet album Pedernal in 2020. While this duo recording maybe isn't quite as weighty, however, in the case of Catherine Sikora if you are into imaginative players like Rachel Musson, then you will easily appreciate what Irish saxophonist Sikora is about.
The tracks are if anything too long; but it's free improvisation so some things take and indeed need time. The first of these ''filaments'' is just under a half an hour and the last takes more than 20 minutes. The second at just over 12 minutes is more concise and all the better for that brevity given the impact is even more enjoyable than the longer tracks.
Issuing label Relative Pitch says that this was ''the first ever meeting between Susan Alcorn and Catherine Sikora'' - one would hope that there will be more because pedal steel player Alcorn has such an individual sound and seems to connect on some sort of simpatico level with the reliably dynamic Sikora that is worth documenting.
Next week's highlight - Danilo Pérez, John Patitucci, Adam Cruz Photo: press
Danilo Pérez, John Patitucci, Adam Cruz Ronnie Scott's, London Tuesday 19 March
Back in 2012 when we heard Danilo Pérez at Ronnie's it proved a rare sighting at the …
Back in 2012 when we heard Danilo Pérez at Ronnie's it proved a rare sighting at the time and still is not a frequent occurrence when the Pérez trio play the club. On that occasion it was a whistle stop appearance ahead of a gig in Paris at the Duc des Lombards club. Since then Wayne Shorter has died but these days it’s easy to still think of the US-based Panamanian pianist leader in terms of the Wayne Shorter Quartet primarily and that’s not surprising as the Wayne quartet of which John Patitucci was also a member has had such an impact on jazz over the last 20 years. The Pérez trio has a very different approach but like Shorter it’s a showcase for the imagination of a composer at work. Drummer Adam Cruz, who looks a little like a younger Barack Obama, can turn up the power but that distant night (when Ben Street was the bassist, not Patitucci) was able to anticipate and develop soloing lines when Pérez wanted to stretch out. On that 2012 occasion the trio were performing some new music, dedicated to Danilo's daughter, the set highlight was easily Stevie Wonder’s ‘Overjoyed’ from the 1985 In Square Circle album, although Pérez did a fun mischievous unfolding version of ‘Besame Mucho’ late on that drew smiles.
