Compact Disc (CD), Vinyl LP
“I see jazz as a way of approaching things creatively,” South London drummer Moses Boyd told Bandcamp last year. At the forefront of the U.K.’s youthful jazz renaissance, Boyd’s most revolutionary work has been recorded alongside saxophonist Binker Golding. The two met on the jazz education program Tomorrow’s Warriors, which also nurtured the likes of Shabaka Hutchings and Nubya Garcia.
One of the most important hubs for this new school of club conscious London players has been the Total Refreshment Centre. And it’s at this live music venue (that doubles as a studio) that the pair recorded Alive in the East?, their follow-up to the widely acclaimed exploratory jazz LP Journey to the Mountain of Forever. Their new outing for Gearbox Records was recorded with the same band: trumpeter Byron Wallen, harpist Tori Handsley, free jazz sax innovator Evan Parker, and drummer Yussef Dayes. Despite the absence of Sarathy Korwar’s tabla, this 10-track companion piece to Journey to the Mountain of Forever is no less expansive, with its mix of fiery improvisation and spiritual free jazz.
The double drum assault of “The Birth of Light” sets the tone, the whoops of the crowd testament to the power of this live session. After this duet, the free improvisation of “How Land Learnt To Be” draws on the full force of the two drummer and saxophone setup with a spontaneous barrage of fire music. And similar elemental forces are at work on “How Fire Was Made” with a furious improv battle between horns and drums. But there are also moments of tenderness and reflection, as on “Mishkaku’s Tale,” with its intuitive interplay between Boyd and Golding and the elegiac harp of Handsley (also heard on the haunting final track “The Death of Light”).
