Soft Heap
Al Dente
(Reel Recordings)
It
was (more or less) during the mid-70s that the whole group of "parallel
streams", never really "commercial", that for reasons of
easiness of use are usually placed under the collective umbrella name "New
English Jazz" came to their end. A sad fate, that – though differences
for reasons of style were not few – immediately placed them side-by-side
with those groups from the "Classy Progressive" camp such as
Hatfield And The North. In just a couple of years both will become victims
of the "friendly fire" shot by Punk, or – better said – by that
fad-loving UK press which made a "straw man" of Prog as an example
of empty gigantism, when in fact they were just titillating the assorted
inferiority complexes of audiences asking for cheap thrills.
Though
inside a frame of "diminishing expectations", a few fans greeted
with sympathy the birth of a new line-up which, while openly referring
to the past – Soft – presented a certain change of scenery – Head, i.e.,
the initials of its members. Though the names of Hugh Hopper and Elton
Dean made the much-loved group come to one’s mind, those of electric pianist
Alan Gowen and drummer Dave Sheen sounded as they promised a new freshness,
if not a whole new musical language.
Released
by Ogun in 1978, Rogue Element appeared to successfully translate the group’s
live experience into nice home listening, thanks to a good mixing work,
and skillful editing. Album opener Seven For Lee, by Dean, immediately
becoming a tiny classic from this period, with the long track penned by
Gowen, C.R.R.C., showing the quartet move along different coordinates.
Due
to "selective attention" on the part of the music press, I don’t
really know much about the way the next studio album of the same name by
the group, now Soft Heap, was greeted, the P standing for familiar face,
drummer Pip Pyle. Personally speaking, I really felt let down, and it was
after buying the thing that I started questioning the whole matter more.
Nothing appeared to work as expected on that record, the studio sound being
muddy and unremarkable, the quartet sounding uncertain about what to do.
Gowen sounded mediocre, Hopper and Dean sounded tired, and this is obviously
not the first record one has to listen to if one has never listened to
Pip Pyle, who’s almost impossible to recognize here.
So
it was with a certain amount of ambivalence that I heard about the release
of a new (old) album by Soft Heap, titled Al Dente, which has a "cooking
cover" which has one immediately thinking about that old album I didn’t
like. And it was with a certain amount of surprise that I found myself
enjoying the album. Just two caveats.
As
it’s easy to read on their Web site, Reel Recordings like to release warm-sounding
live documents sounding as close as possible to perfect. Something which
will sound quite disconcerting to all those who, after listening to Al
Dente, will surely rank it as a mid-fi bootleg. Which is true enough. But
since in this case the source of the concert is a stereo tape reel at 3 &
3/4 we’ll have to place the sound in the right context, having this CD as
a precious discovery who won’t hurt one’s ears. In fact, after one becomes
used to the sound, provided one pays the proper amount of attention (but
maybe nowadays this is asking for a bit too much, perhaps?), it’s easy to
notice worthy details such as Pip Pyle’s bass drum work, or the natural sound
of those bass strings under Hopper’s touch, the latter meaning that signal
compression was not overdone.
The
second point is about the fact that Al Dente maybe really sounds better
than it sounded to me: since my CD player is still at the repairer’s, to
judge Al Dente I had to use a cheap, emergency, CD player, while those
old LPs I referred to earlier were listened to on my usual turntable/cartridge
combination.
Al
Dente features a live concert recorded in London, at the Phoenix Club,
on November, 22, 1978. Six tracks are featured in all, for a total of 73′.
Thinking about this line-up is quite stimulating. Alan Gowen is an electric
pianist that’s quite different from Mike Ratledge, who was pretty sparse
when comping on the electric piano. In so differently from Ratledge, behind
Gowen one can hear a long study of orthodox jazz "comping", chord
substitution, and working melodically in parallel to the soloist. Here,
Pip Pyle is almost a "stronger and more muscular" version of
Phil Howard – one can’t help but wonder what fate would have been reserved
for Soft Machine had the group chosen somebody sounding more like this
Pyle than John Marshall.
Fara
is the nice bluesy ballad – a "sensitive theme", played mid-tempo,
almost à la Sonny Rollins – that we know already, with alto sax by the
composer, elegant cymbals, nice backing by bass and piano; the latter instrument
– after stating the structure – walks in parallel to the saxophone. Nice
Gowen solo at about 7′, with a nice counterpoint by Pyle.
Sleeping
House is, I believe, an unreleased track by Gowen. A medium-fast tempo,
a very agile Hopper on bass, then a saxello solo sounding quite "bitter".
At about 7′ there’s a nice unison passage of saxello and bass, then a piano
solo with the rhythm section sounding almost like a Hopper/Howard. At about
11′ there’s a nice bass/drums unison, a change of tempo, and nice accents
from bass/bass drum. After about a quarter of an hour, the ending sounds
not a little like Soft Machine.
C.R.R.C.
is slow and cyclical, lyric, with Pip Pyle’s toms sounding quite
"black". Nice piano solo at about 10′, with ostinato and crescendo
from bass/drum. At about 12′, what sounds like tape editing brings the listener
to…
Circle
Line: a classic knotty-sounding theme by Hopper for a track where the bass
plays many unison parts with the sax and the piano. There’s a piano solo,
followed by an excellent bass/drums part, highlighting in turn cymbal,
bass drum, crash, and rimshot. Theme played on sax/bass, the close coming
at about 6′.
Slow
and lyric, Remain So by Gowen almost sounds like a standard. An orthodox-sounding
sax solo, classic comping, solo piano at about 9’30, theme, and close at
17′.
The
last track features the well-known melody by Elton Dean here going under
the title One For Lee. Excellent solos from piano and sax, and a really
great performance from Pyle.
Beppe Colli
© Beppe Colli 2008
CloudsandClocks.net | June 26, 2008