A conversation between two tenors
“Duo is the simplest form of group playing.” That is how Evan Parker describes the format at the heart of May Spring Last a Lifetime, a new recording [extracted above] with fellow tenor saxophonist Tom Challenger.
“It’s the simplest, the purest in a certain sense, and the most challenging,” Parker says. “There’s nowhere to hide, really. It’s about the exchange.”
The album is the first duo release from the two musicians. It grew out of years of informal playing sessions before eventually making its way onto the stage and, later, into the studio.
Recorded at Arco Barco in Ramsgate, May Spring Last a Lifetime places two tenor saxophones in direct dialogue.
The shared instrumentation is central to the project. Parker speaks of a common language between the players, but also of learning from Challenger’s discoveries on the instrument and testing how those ideas might find a place in his own vocabulary.
For Challenger, the interest lies partly in the way the music unsettles expectations.
“As much as there is just two of us and you can tell there’s two of us, there are moments where there’s no one,” he says in the booklet conversation accompanying the release. “And then there are moments where there are four or five.”
A central figure
Few musicians have had a greater influence on British improvised music than Parker. Emerging in the late-1960s, he became one of the defining voices of European free improvisation and helped establish a distinctly British approach to the music. His work as a solo performer, bandleader and collaborator has shaped generations of improvisers, while his exploration of circular breathing and extended saxophone techniques has expanded the instrument’s vocabulary. Even after more than five decades of activity, Parker, 82, remains a restless and prolific presence on the scene.
A distinctive voice
Challenger belongs to a much younger generation of musicians who have absorbed lessons from both jazz tradition and contemporary improvisation while developing a language of their own. Alongside work with his own ensembles, he has become known for projects that move between composition and spontaneous performance, often bringing together musicians from different corners of the creative music community. Recent years have seen him emerge as an increasingly significant figure within UK improvised music, not only through his playing but also through his work as an educator and organiser. His work spans the avant-garde street-music ensemble Brass Mask, whose 2013 debut Spyboy merged New Orleans brass traditions with left-field improvisation, and the contemporary acoustic quartet Dice Factory, which has explored complex structural composition since their 2012 self-titled debut. He has also bridged the gap between jazz and experimental rock with the electro-improv outfit Ma since their 2008 album Jyketie. Notably, Challenger is renowned for site-specific acoustic explorations, such as his 2016 album Vyamanikal with pianist Kit Downes, which captured saxophone and church organs interacting with the architecture of five different Suffolk churches.
Different generations, shared concerns
While they come from different generations of British improvised music, both musicians have built careers around extending the possibilities of the saxophone.
The recording finds common ground in curiosity rather than contrast. What emerges is less a meeting of established master and younger disciple than a conversation between two musicians listening closely to one another.
False Walls release
The album was recorded and mastered by Filipe Gomes, with photographs by Caroline Forbes.
Issued by the Kent-based False Walls label, the CD edition includes a 20-page booklet featuring a 4,000-word conversation between the two musicians and is presented in a six-panel gatefold package.
The duo will launch the album at Cafe Oto in Dalston on 21 July ahead of its release on CD and digital formats on 7 August.
