The collaboration of American alto saxophonist living in the Philippines Rick Countryman with legendary Japanese free improvising drummer Sabu Toyozumim, also performing on Erhu, continues with this outstanding performance at the LIMBO Art Gallery in Makati, Philippines in 2020, joined by Malaysian tenor saxophonist Yong Yandsen for a burning set of free jazz.
Label: ChapChap Records Catalog ID: CPCD-017 Squidco Product Code: 29437
Format: CD Condition: New Released: 2020 Country: Japan Packaging: Digipack Recorded live at the LIMBO Art Gallery in Makati, Philippines, on February 29th, 2020, by Alvin Cornista.
"After the glowing Voices of the Spirit, a new sulfurous record, this time is without the double bass of the talented Simon Tan. The effect is immediate: abrupt music, without the slightest harmonic markup, and without the associated seductions. The tandem of saxophones, Yong Yandsen (ts) and Rick Countryman (as), seems to be left to its own devices, out of control. The energy pours out without any constraint except an obsession of exchanges, distributed questions and answers, a vehement dialogue of reeds, of their intertwined twirls, tirelessly. You feel this music starts long before the CD is on your HiFi deck. The first song, which gives the title to the album, surprisingly seems to find our trio already in the middle of their feverish conversation. No theme, here useless, our two blowers having already matter for discussion. And the great Sabu Toyozumi? You would think that, with the help of age, he would have calmed down, taking the posture of the great master of Aiki Do, with the sharpest vigilance, the economy of gestures and the efficiency of the blow. This is what is surprising at the start of "Future of Change": strikes like those of a mass to drive piles, out of any reassuring rhythm, as if to mark space, to define the playing field of the two saxes. But very quickly, the pleasure of mixing with the bickering of the two blowers dominates. He takes the phrasing of one, emphasizes or deconstructs it, disturbs or inspires it enough for a sax-drums duo to be established for a moment, with chopsticks that disconcert, creating surprise, distilling magic. Then the other comes back and the boosted trance continues.
So it's a Total Free, a kind of wild energy that makes us forget time, landmarks, to let us go through this joy of the moment, primary.
Sabu Toyozumi always puzzles. He bewitches skins, metal, wood; making music from any shock. He has the power of a young man and the subtlety of the greatest. Besides, is he not one of the heroes of the drums? The hero? Maybe so, but we must not deprive ourselves of the happiness that others give us. We are surprised that these percussive cataclysms are the result of a rather childlike and always smiling elder. This is the recording of one of the concerts of Sabu Toyozumi who came to the Philippines in early 2020 to play with his friend Rick Countryman. We know this alto saxophonist can play totally free, with rough music, deeply lyrical and going straight to the point, without frills. Instead of concerts in sax-bass-drums trio found in previous albums, they are joined by tenor saxophonist Yong Yandsen for the CD mentioned at the beginning, Voices of the Spirit. And there, it's like opening up a new horizon, Rick Countryman deploying an even greater freedom, facing Yong Yandsen taking on this game of surpassing oneself. In this album, in the absence of a double bass, we are even more in the work on the sound textures with the example of these sounds of voiced sax, on unusual phrasings sometimes recalling the clicks, the cracklings of European improvisers, and many other tortures of sounds in the service of the expression of sensitivity. Permanence, however: the fever and the lifelong commitment that the American from Manila knows how to communicate to others. As for Sabu Toyozumi, his science of strikes is astounding, and his ability to propel the play of others, to create situations or to clear spaces surprises each time when one can have the feeling that all his play is than a solo.