SPARK
Martin Speake saxophone Mark Sanders percussion

Date of Release: 01/01/2007

Label: Pumpkin

This is an interesting diversion for British alto saxophonist Martin Speake, since he's usually identified with a Lee Konitz-like approach, foregrounding a light and mobile bebop sax style, albeit exposed to postbop's structural freedoms. But Speake, who has launched his own label with this release, steers toward free-improv in a set of explorations with drummer Mark Sanders, a gifted player capable of seamless movement between free-rhythms and propulsive swing.

Speake will surprise some of his regular listeners with the spikiness of his playing on these nine tracks, and with the shift of his cool demeanour to a music of startling zigzags and brittle, edgy phrasing. This is no implacably hardline improv session, however. Speake slides into whimsically cruising motif-playing, his slow musing warm and evocative (with sometimes over atmospheric toms rumbles from Sanders), and the extent to which he avoids repetition confirms how steadily he continues to evolve. John Fordham, The Guardian 19/01/07