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Corner To Corner/The Longest Night

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A triple length set of work from the team of Evan Parker and John Stevens – presented here as a 2CD set! The first part of the package features both volumes 1 and 2 of the Longest Night sessions from 1976 – very free duets between these two ex-partners in the Spontaneous Music Ensemble – a session with very little structure at all, and sounds that are almost more FMP than other Ogun albums of the time! Evan Parker plays soprano sax throughout – and Stevens alternates between percussion and cornet – using mostly the former, but sometimes a bit of the latter in ways that have a surprising sense of presence. Parker's notes are nicely shaped on the best numbers – bringing in occasional more human moments amidst more Lacy-like bleats and blonks on the soprano. Titles include "21.25", "19.11", "19.44", "21.47", "22.18", "23.12",, and "23.40. Next up is the album Corner To Corner – recorded in 1993, nearly 20 years after the first 2 records – but with a quality that's amazingly similar, and which shows both Parker and Stevens to still be at the farthest, freest edges of British jazz. The sounds of the session clearly mark it as a belated follow-up to the first date – but the titles this time around are a bit less oblique, and include "Corner To Corner", "Rubber", "Angles", "Incidence", and "Reflections".  © 1996-2013, Dusty Groove, Inc.