VA - Free Zone Appleby 2002 (2CD) (2003)

This double-CD set documents the "Free Zone" feature of the 2002 Appleby Jazz Festival. All these performances were captured live at the acoustically rich St. Michael's Church in Appleby (England). A pool of eight free improvisers, some well-known (Evan Parker, Philipp Wachsmann, Marcio Mattos, John Edwards, Mark Sanders) and others still cruelly under-recorded (Neil Metcalfe, John Rangecroft, Sylvia Hallett), spontaneously combine their skills in a series of ad hoc duets, trios, quartets, and a final octet. It is not said if the pieces are presented in the order of performance, but considering the symmetry with which each disc unfolds, one guesses that some editing and sequencing came into play to make the listening experience more pleasurable. Each CD starts with a solo performance: Hallett's captivating voice-and-violin dirge "Whitethroat" and Edwards' bass solo "Pin Drop." Then the groups gradually grow larger. With a total duration of over 150 minutes, Free Zone Appleby 2002 is a generous set, too generous for a single sitting (the sequencing of the discs as separate entities comes in handy), and highlights abound. But the two outstanding pieces are provided by the rhythm section (using the term oh so loosely) of Edwards and Sanders as they engage with Rangecroft in "Subject Matters" and Hallett in "Phantoms." They gracefully adapt their playing to these two very different musicians -- Rangecroft being a more pragmatic, intellectual player, while Hallett operates on a more atavistic or spiritual level. After such focused music, "Morsman Octet" comes as a light disappointment: the group has a hard time getting the music to flow effortlessly. But that's hardly a turnoff, only a somehow anticlimactic finale.