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Martin Speake
Intention
(Ubuntu)
ALTO saxophonist Martin Speake's great inspiration is Ornette Coleman and it's that that maestro's singing quality that defines Speake's sound.
On Intention, he's joined by pianist Ethan Iverson, bassist Fred Thomas and drummer James Maddren and it's Iverson who provides the intro to opening track Becky, one of nine Speake tunes on the album, with Speake's alto emulating the sound of a running stream over Maddren's rolling drums.
Twister is a stomping, full-on track with some strutting Speake and Spring Dance expresses his love of the teeming folkish melodies which seem to create themselves from his horn as it dances and sings beside Thomas's springing, delving bass.
The Heron is a sonic image of nature's blessing, drawn firstly by Iverson's sketching notes, then followed by Speake's timbral portraiture of vulnerable beauty. Then, almost unknowingly, we are in the world of the US songbook ballad and Dancing in the Dark.
It doesn't sound that way, though, as Iverson and Speake make it into a folk tune, full of other narrative currents and played as a people's melody — strong, authentic and with a contemporary sound.
The quartet gets down and boppish on Charlie Parker's Charlie's Wig, with Iverson playing a series of lightning keyboard runs and Speake's horn flying and hovering over the tune as if he were squeezing out all its lyricism, while Maddren and Thomas earth the familiar theme.
Maddren's clicking pulse is also at the centre of Speake's tribute to the great New Orleans drummer Ed Blackwell and Thomas's throbbing strings never let up.
Speake's tunes have a powerfully spontaneous narrative content that rise up from their lyricism and it's the listener's task to invest both themes and improvised passages with their own stories. This is true of June 2nd, with the clarity of its melody and Human Vision, where Iverson comps and palavers with Speake's fleeting horn and his swift keyboard runs chase away.
The final, and title, track is simple in its tune, crystallising in its sound that Intention was certainly one of the most compelling records in 2018, a year when there were some memorable recordings.
