The version of Detail featured here — often called Detail Plus — was a multinational quartet consisting of Norwegian tenor saxophonist Frode Gjerstad, American cornettist Bobby Bradford, South African bassist Johnny Dyani and London drummer John Stevens. Gjerstad and Stevens had first formed a trio with Norwegian pianist Eivin One Pedersen in December 1981. The following March, Dyani was added and for four years, without Pedersen, the saxophonist, bassist and drummer were the trio Detail. Bradford had first recorded with Stevens, in the Spontaneous Music Ensemble, in 1971, and was invited over from California to join Detail for a July 1986 UK tour. The recording In Time Was captures a gig from that tour. For indexing purposes only, the album is subdivided into three tracks, but transitions between them are seamless so the album plays as one continuous set with a total duration of some forty-eight minutes. The last track of the three fades out because of a drop-out on the master tape, but in all other respects the recording quality is excellent.
Right from the start, the music is free improvisation that bursts with energy and excitement. While Detail Plus was not a long-established group, the recorded gig was in the middle of the tour, so the four were played in and sounding familiar with one another. Gjerstad and Bradford had never played together prior to the tour but they function well as a frontline team. Bursting with creative verve, they trade phrases and ideas like a long-established pairing, weaving around and complementing each other perfectly, each spurring the other on to new heights. Thrilling as that is, the music is not all flat-out blowing; as a foursome the group were expert at negotiating gear transitions between the high-energy stuff and mellower, more atmospheric passages that are laden with great emotion and poignancy, fuelled by the plaintive tones of the cornet and saxophone.
Sadly, this album bears the subtitle "In Memory of Johnny Mbizo Dyani" as it was to be the great bassist's final recording; in October 1986, aged 40, he died suddenly after a performance in Berlin. His work with The Blue Notes and others, including Steve Lacy, Don Cherry and Detail itself, eloquently demonstrated what a powerful player he was — solid as a rock, with a pure, clear tone that commanded attention in any context. In August 1987, the surviving Blue Notes — Chris McGregor, Louis Moholo-Moholo and Dudu Pukwana — recorded Blue Notes for Johnny (Ogun), their own fine tribute to their fallen comrade. However, In Time Was probably serves better as a memorial as it captures Dyani in top form on his last recording. Ironically, one of this album's most emotional sections — and the one most like a threnody — is a stunning duet between Bradford and Dyani himself in the last third of "In Time Was Part 1". On an album that glistens with one highlight after another, it is one of the very best. In memoriam JMD.
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