The Convergance Quartet

11:21am Thursday 16th November 2006

The Convergence Quartet at the Jacqueline du Pr Music Building were playing the final gig in a nationwide tour. It was fitting they should end up here, as bass player Dominic Lash and pianist Alexander Hawkins are both based in Oxford and it is through Lash's involvement with Oxford Improvisers that this co-operation with two remarkable musicians, Canadian drummer Harris Eisenstadt and American trumpeter Taylor Ho Bynum, was made possible. These are both players that bring great control and sensitivity to free improvisation, an area of jazz often criticised for its waywardness and apparent disorganisation.

There had obviously been some fairly rigorous rehearsal time as all the pieces were written by members of the quartet and everyone was referring to a score of some kind. The arrangements gave each player a degree of space and the group was often working in duo or trio form. This allowed us to fully appreciate the range of colour and diversity in the music and to hear clearly the more subtle moments, particularly from Ho Bynum's muted trumpet and Lash's intricacies on the bass. Eisenstadt's drumming was extraordinarily controlled and colourful, including his more extreme uses of the kit. Alex Hawkins, with a fierce technique, showed an awareness that a torrent of notes is not always needed. This was a performance of great diversity and skill that showed what a diverse world free improvisation can inhabit.

On the other hand, the first half of the evening with Veryan Weston, piano, plus Dominic Lash, bass, and Paul May, drums, was at times an example of how free improvisation can sound like players reading from different chapters of a tough book. Veryan Weston's piano work is discreet and rich, full of subtle changes of harmony that need to be heard. Paul May, on the other hand, has a style of drumming that is sharp to the point of brutal and though infinitely clever it is not often restrained. The dimensions of Weston's playing were too often drowned or distorted, though there were still moments of great

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