Russell, John

Analekta

Label: Emanem Country: UK

"John Russell has been running the Mopomoso series of concerts since the mid-1980s, initially with the help of Chris Burn. The concerts take place on the third Sunday of every month at the Red Rose, which is between Finsbury Park and Holloway in the inner suburbs of north London. The usual format is to have three groups (commonly duos, trios or soloists) per concert, with the final group being a duo with Russell. The three duos on this compilation come from such occasions - there are several more that will hopefully be released in due course.

This is the second duo performance with Garry Todd to be published - a 1975 duo appeared on the long deleted Incus LP called TEATIME. Todd has not appeared in public very often over the years, but he has kept up his playing standard, as can be heard on this recent reunion.

Henry Lowther has been active, mainly as a jazz trumpeter, since around 1960, but has been involved in free projects from time to time. Over the last few years he has performed several duets with Russell - an apparently unlikely duo that works well together.

Chefa Alonso has been living in London for the last couple of years and making herself felt on both soprano saxophone and her home-made percussion kit. This was the first time that she and the guitarist performed a duet.

Every so often, Russell also puts together one-off larger groups under the name Quaqua. The last track on this CD is the nine-piece Quaqua he put together for the 2006 FREEDOM OF THE CITY festival. In choosing the musicians, he decided on an orchestration, and then used the musicians who were both available and potentially compatible. This theoretically unlikely group improvised some magnificent music together, showing that his vision was right."-Martin Davidson, from the liner notes