Cheltenham Jazz Festival: The Profound Trio, Town Hall

Saturday 2nd May 2009

Crackerjack rating: 10 / 10.

What’s free jazz? Well you do have to buy a ticket. But way back some musicians said…Why don’t we just launch off without a tune, a key signature, bar lines or a tempo, and see what happens? So they did and it caught on. For a while.

At its worst it produced gut wrenching noise. At its rare best, massively memorable music, advancing improvisational and rhythmic skills to new heights. And the Profound Sound Trio is the best.

With US originators: bassist Henry Grimes and drummer Andrew Cyrille, and younger - but still a free veteran – UK saxist Paul Dunmall.

Grimes kicked off with an intriguing extended solo bowing, Dunmall developed a classic blues phrase into something phenomenal. Cyrille watched silent, like an extinct volcano. But then erupted into a silver shimmer of cymbals and driving drum lines.

Forget about tunes, the trio in full flight was awesome, pure telepathic improvisation. Free jazz is back. All it needed was the virtuosity these players displayed in solo spots. And perhaps a little more advance co-operation than 60s rules allowed.

Images linger: Grimes’ mystical harmonics on violin, Dunmall’s release to churning late Coltrane exploration, Cyrille’s transformation of a march beat into a drum symphony.

Derek Briggs