Exposé Online banner

Exposé Online

Not just outside the box, but denying the existence of boxes.
Covering music from the fringes since 1993.

Reviews

John Surman — Flashpoints and Undercurrents
(Cuneiform Rune 515/516, 1969/2025, 2CD / DL)

by Peter Thelen, Published 2025-03-30

Flashpoints and Undercurrents Cover art

Sweet. Two discs of vintage John Surman, as the bandleader of a ten-piece ensemble, recorded live in April of ‘69 in Hamburg. Last year, Surman just celebrated his 80h birthday, and what a long and varied career he has to show for it, but in 1969 he was just getting started as a bandleader after working as a sideman for the likes of Mike Westbrook, Peter Lemer, Ronnie Scott, John McLaughlin, Chris Mcgregor, and others. His first eponymous album had just been released in January of ‘69, and his second, How Many Clouds Can You See?, was already in the works. Here Surman, in addition to composing most of the fourteen tracks, plays baritone and soprano sax, plus bass clarinet, along with Ronnie Scott (tenor sax), Mike Osborne (alto sax), Alan Skidmore (tenor sax, flute), Malcolm Griffiths (trombone), Kenny Wheeler (trumpet and flugelhorn), Alan Jackson (drums), and Harry Miller (bass), plus two Austrian musicians, Fritz Pauer (piano) and lastly Erich Kleinschuster (trombone). All the players find plenty of space to stretch out — in fact some of the longer cuts (“Where Fortune Smiles,” “Once upon a Time,” “Hallo Thursday,” “Flashpoint,” and “Gratuliere”) seem to be extended explicitly to accommodate more solos, and the performance is powerful. One might consider that this is an era where live recordings were not always the best, but Flashpoints and Undercurrents makes the listener forget all of that, the only thing better would be actually witnessing this monumental event; furthermore a little bit of research shows that many of these pieces have no studio counterparts (or even other live versions) that I can discern, which makes the entire set even more essential. The mood throughout is not as much free as it is spiritual freedom, and though there are some wild outbursts here and there, one can find plenty of melodic savvy to wrap your ears around. That it took 56 years for this amazing live set to get a proper release is certainly puzzling, but surely worth the wait.

Filed under: Archives, 2025 releases, 1969 recordings

Related artist(s): John Surman, Alan Skidmore, Kenny Wheeler, Mike Osborne

More info
http://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.com/album/flashpoints-and-undercurrents

 

What's new

These are the most recent changes made to artists, releases, and articles.