Fownhope’s Heart of Oak Society traces its roots to the age of friendly societies, when communities provided their own safety net. Its anniversary celebrations reveal a tradition still very much alive, says MARK SEDDON
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Gerd Dudek
’Smatter / Day and Night
(psi 02.01) / (psi 12.05)
IN HIS brief sleeve narrative to ’Smatter, Gerd Dudek’s first record under his own name, Evan Parker, a luminous fellow saxophonist, expresses a sense of incongruity that his is indeed Dudek’s recorded leadership debut.
The album’s label, psi, is Parker’s label, so the Bristolian’s admiration goes much futher than words. But ’Smatter is indeed a deeply beautiful record, cut by Dudek in 1998 when he was 60 with bandmates familiar enough on the British jazz sene: Chris Laurence on bass, John Parricelli on guitar and the late arch-drummer of many a historic British session, the wondrous Tony Levin.
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