Dave Green Trio & Evan Parker - Raise Four (2022)

The album, 'Raise Four', came about through an invitation by radio presenter and producer Jez Nelson to double bassist Dave Green to put a project together for BBC Radio 3's Jazz On 3. Typically, Dave went for the musical jugular, pairing his trio - featuring saxophonist Iain Dixon and drummer Gene Calderazzo - with the great improvising saxophonist Evan Parker.

The set draws from purely improvised free music through to the compositions of Thelonious Monk and an exquisite ballad by Billy Strayhorn. Although it would be hard to equate the music with the leadership of anyone other than Dave Green, the music successfully flows freely and inspiringly between all the participants, achieving a musical conversation of the highest order.

Green has been a mainstay and leading figure on the European jazz scene for an incredible six decades, from early adventures with childhood friend, the late Rolling Stones drummer, Charlie Watts, through working with so many of the great names of on both sides of the Atlantic throughout the sixties and into the seventies. Including Sonny Rollins, Ben Webster, Stan Tracey, Coleman Hawkins, Don Rendell, Ian Carr, and Michael Garrick. As a long-time member of Humphrey Lyttleton's band, whilst also working successfully on the improvised jazz scene with luminaries such as John Stevens and Lol Coxhill, Dave Green has defied categorisation, instead focusing on the eclectic spark of creativity found "in the moment". This approach has born fruits with his own musical projects, be-it in his band Fingers featuring Garrick and Coxhill with drummer Alan Jackson, to the trio of master improvisors presented here.

Dave Green: double bass
Iain Dixon: tenor saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet
Gene Calderazzo: drums
Evan Parker: tenor & soprano saxophones