Saxophonist Darius Blair’s duo with guitarist Niko Huber is pretty special even going on a small number of tracks drawn from In a New Order. It’s always great isn’t it when you stumble upon something that bit different and the sonics send a frisson down your spine at some primeval, mysterious, level.
But more than a case of fancy that or indeed crikey, wtf or blow me down with a feather ‘Nothing Personal’ complete with a moody video (natch) is issued on a credible label to give you an idea of context – Nils Frahm’s very non-generic Leiter which is a German indie home to Anoushka Shankar, Ganavya and Moses Yoofee Trio .
Let’s see if there’s much traction if word slips out more. There deserves to be.
It’s certainly fresh, convincing and rewards repeated replay. There’s an ache and raw emotion to the interplay and exploration of taut riffs and moods not afraid to draw on a bluesy rockistry especially when Huber opens up.
“Niko and me,” says Darius, “are both based in the Frankfurt area in Germany. We met in Hessen’s State Youth Jazz Orchestra and played together later in different projects around the local jazz scene. The decision to form a duo was made early in the COVID-19 pandemic (around 2020). Although we had been good friends for over a decade and had played together in various ensembles before, this was the moment we consciously chose to write music together specifically for this two-person format.”
Guitar and sax playlist
Rather than dad dance disconsolately in the dark blamelessly oblivious to their existence as you despair at the state of the dancefloor and instead get used to the thought of what these jazz unknowns might even sound like, a guitar and sax rooted playlist however obliquely juxtaposed next seems a proper idea.
Harrumph. Look at the spread in the playlist but quick caveat – the duo hardly share anything directly in common with any of these approaches.
What they do share beyond that Mingus-like riff that dominates ‘Nothing Personal’ to begin with before spooling off, especially with the more progressively inclined approaches, is a spare less-is-more rawness that strips out extra fluff and doesn’t overly noodle. Not that there’s anything wrong with a bit of noodling I hasten to add!
And yet it’s natural to cast around to find some sort of parallel runnings especially on the fringes headed towards experimental electronica and open sounds.
Strict tonality and pared back modalities
The duo paint it all over keeping to an uncoated strict tonality and pared back modalities. It’s not an all guns blazing approach mercifully. Crucially neither do the Germans pine for the fjords. Phew.
Closer than all this just the few of them, these two, are instead they say “Inspired in part by recordings like Brad Mehldau and Joshua Redman’s various duo format recordings and performances, or Michael League’s and Bill Lawrence’s work, we wanted to challenge ourselves to explore the space and intimacy of this format without relying on typical jazz conventions. This soon became an exciting artistic challenge, allowing us to develop a minimalist, distinctive sound that highlights restraint, interaction, and musical purity.”
A certain playfulness
According to the band, another of the EP’s tracks ‘Room to Room’ finds Huber’s “initially unfolding warm, floating soundscapes reminiscent of early recordings by Vini Reilly’s Durutti Column.”
So from 1970s post-punk Mancunian thinking outside the box to Mehldau and Redman within the jazz village Blair/Huber run the heard-it-all-before voodoo down effortlessly. You’ll be listening with new ears.
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