Paul Bley: Sankt Gerold

“

Sankt Gerold is named for the Austrian mountain monastery where the trio of Paul Bley, Evan Parker, and Barre Phillips recorded this suite of 12 improvisations. It's fitting, too, because the Alpine air and resonant space are virtually members of the group, amplifying and blending the instrumental voices of musicians who have each made resonance a crucial part of his style: Bley in the calculated hang-time of a note and the dramatic use of silence; Parker in the multiplying contrapuntal lines that have arisen in his work with saxophone overtones and circular breathing; Phillips in the rich, echoing depths and cello-like highs of his bowed bass. Sankt Gerold consists of five trio pieces and a series of unaccompanied solos, two each by Bley and Phillips, three by Parker. Decades of experience in collective improvisation show in the fluent ease with which the three pass phrases amongst themselves on "Variation 8" and in the subtly shifting densities and sounds that mark every track, from saxophone pad slaps to hand-dampened piano strings and drummed bass. Instruments merge and separate with an organic sense of form, and sudden evolutions arise seamlessly. Bley and Parker have long defined distinctive approaches to the solo art, but there are special pleasures here, both in the fluting highs of Parker's beehive soprano and the welling lines of Bley's "Variation 9." Phillips's "Variation 7" is an exquisite bass solo, gradually building in complexity and played with an attack so smoothly percussive that it's almost pianistic. This is meditative music that seems to breathe with its environment. --Stuart Broomer

”

Tracks:

Sankt Gerold Variations 1~12

Paul Bley: piano
Evan Parker: tenor and soprano saxophones
Barre Phillips: double-bass