The Squid's Ear Magazine


Watts, Trevor / Stephen Grew: Con Fluent (FMR)

Saxophonist Trevor Watts and pianist Stephen Grew improvised these pieces at a distance, Grew sending recordings of two separate solo concerts from Newcastle, which Watts improvised over resulting in these intricate and exuberant "Improvised Compositions".
 

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product information:

Personnel:



Trevor Watts-soprano saxophone, alto saxophone

Stephen Grew-piano


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UPC: 0642415163040

Label: FMR
Catalog ID: FMRCD414-0216
Squidco Product Code: 22207

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2016
Country: Great Britain
Packaging: Digipack
Recorded at ARC studio in Hastings, UK by Trevor Watts.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"This exuberance that bursts out like tropical juices. In front of our instruments and within a few seconds, somehow the music unfolds in a particular way and you follow that to the ends of the earth.

The pieces were improvised in a series of unusual stages. Trevor and I first performed in London last September, we liked what happened and Trevor suggested making music at a distance, especially as I was living on the west coast of Lancashire and he on the south coast.

Trevor then suggested I send him some solo piano music. The solo piano pieces were material from a solo recording I did with Charlie Mc Govern at the Lit and Phil in Newcastle, an excellent venue with a really nice Kawai B, grand piano. Charlie then sent the solo music which has since become a solo album and Trevor improvised his lines over the top of the pieces, as we didn't have quite enough material for a whole album, I then returned to Newcastle to record a live gig in May 2015, Trevor worked his magic on the remaining material, consequently the music was pieced together to form this album. The first three tracks having a slightly different feel, not surprisingly to the last three tracks"-Stephen Gres


Artist Biographies

"Trevor Charles Watts (born 26 February 1939 in York) is an English jazz and free-improvising alto and soprano saxophonist. He is largely self-taught, having taken up the cornet at age 12 then switched to saxophone at 18. While stationed in Germany with the RAF (1958-63), he encountered the drummer John Stevens and trombonist Paul Rutherford. After being demobbed he returned to London. In 1965 he and Stevens formed the Spontaneous Music Ensemble, which became one of the crucibles of British free improvisation. Watts left the band to form his own group Amalgam in 1967, then returned to SME for another stretch that lasted until the mid-1970s. Another key association was with the bassist Barry Guy and his London Jazz Composers' Orchestra, an association that lasted from the band's inception in the 1970s up to its (permanent?) disbandment in the mid-1990s.

Though he was initially strongly identified with the avant-garde, Watts is a versatile musician who has worked in everything from straight jazz contexts to rock and blues. His own projects have come increasingly to focus on blending jazz and African music, notably the Moiré Music ensemble which he has led since 1982 in configurations ranging from large ensembles featuring multiple drummers to more intimate trios. He has only occasionally recorded in freer modes in recent years, notably the CD 6 Dialogues, a duet album with Veryan Weston (the pianist in earlier editions of Moiré Music). A solo album, World Sonic, appeared on Hi4Head Records in 2005.

Watts has toured the world over numerous times, run workshops, received grants and commissions, and he has collaborated with some of the great jazz musicians including Archie Shepp, Steve Lacy, Don Cherry and Jayne Cortez. As of 2011, he continues to travel and toured North American with Veryan Weston."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trevor_Watts)
4/28/2025

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Stephen Grew has been playing piano and electronic keyboards for 25 years. His music is completely improvised. He creates spontaneous compositions with other musicians in the heat of the moment. He also performs as a soloist. He is based in Lancaster, UK, and has toured extensively, touring and recording with many musicians from the free improvised scene here in Britain and abroad. Performing in Grutronic, a four piece electronic band, and Grew Trio, Grew Quartet and Grew & Grew. He has also performed with Evan Parker, Keith Tippett, Graham Clark, Pat Thomas, Howard Riley and many others. Long standing collaborators are his brother, Nicholas Grew, Richard Scott, David Ross and Philip Marks.

"I have devote all of my energies to making music, completely made in the moment, improvised. I play with some great musicians, Gulliver Maxwell an alto saxophone player and other Lancastrian players. My first band was with Steve Lewis and George McKay (Charivari) in 1995. I have toured consistently since 1996, in Grew Trio with the great Mancunian players, drummer Phillip Marks and sax/electronics player Richard Scott who I met through Steve Lewis in 1995. We have mainly performed in Britain but also performed in prestigious Modern music festivals in Germany, Austria, Belgium, Latvia and Canada. In 2000 Richard Scott left Grew trio and after a duo collaboration with Sheffield based sax/bassoon player Mick Beck, Mick joined Grew trio to form Grew Quartet in 2006, with Oxford based bass player Dominic Lash. At times I have had to work as a shop keeper, assembler of golf trolleys, gardener and fisherman. My current work takes me to working in Grutronic, (Myspace.com/grutronicmusic) with guests Evan Parker, Orphy Robinson, Paul Obermayer and Grew quartet, a recent Orchestral project with Nicholas Grew and duos featuring violinist Graham Clark, drummer Tony Bianco, Phillip Marks, and drummer / electronics musician David Ross all of whom are based outside of Lancaster. Our music comes out of a need to play music and communicate with sound at the moments of creating it, this process becomes very refined over many years. The long periods of time devoting the workman like instrumentalists approach to making this kind of music, creates a greater clarity of playing and composing, until a bit of magic conversation appears!"-Stephen Grew"

-Stephen Grew Website (http://stepgrew.wixsite.com/stephengrewpianist/biography)
4/28/2025

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



1. Carriageway 4:04

2. Matching Find 6:40

3. Saddness Of Rhyme 7:00

4. The Lit And Phil Chair 2:54

5. Ask Later 15:33

6. Shielding Does Not Show 5:00

Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Jazz
Free Improvisation
London & UK Improv & Related Scenes
Duo Recordings
FMR Records
Jazz & Improvisation Based on Compositions

Search for other titles on the label:
FMR.


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The Squid's Ear Magazine

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