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December 2006, Chris Parker for The Vortex Website Basquiat Strings with Seb Rochford Inspired, according to cellist/leader Ben Davis, as much by the vibrant string groups of Transylvania and the 'luxuriously rich' Brahms sextets as by the jazz of Charles Mingus, the music of Basquiat Strings (Emma Smith and Vicky Fifield, violins; Jenny May-Logan/Nell Catchpole, viola; Davis himself, cello; Richard Pryce, double bass) is nudged and embellished on this absorbing album by the discreetly sympathetic, characteristically subtle drumming of Seb Rochford. The quintet's repertoire, which ranges from infectiously rhythmic original pieces drawing on, say, Macedonian or Hungarian music to ethereally hovering, intriguingly textured explorations of Wayne Shorter's 'Infant Eyes', Ornette Coleman's 'Lonely Woman' and Joe Zawinul's 'In a Silent Way', does not so much bridge the apparent division between jazz and classical music as simply refuse to acknowledge its existence; these are (to strain a metaphor somewhat) not classical musicians who've learned jazz as a 'second language', but fluent, naturally 'bilingual' players wholly imbued with jazz's improvisational facility. Davis, whose avowed aim with this band is 'to establish ways of playing together that give rhythmic drive and support for improvisation … to make a string sound that is as natural as a classical string quartet or the Hungarian string groups', has never sounded more at home than he does here; whether soloing or contributing to the rich, sonorous string drones underlying others' solos, he displays a deft sureness of touch that renders the whole project as memorable as it is arrestingly enjoyable. Chris Parter for the Vortex website |