Another Useful Retrospective

Another of the ECM artist retrospectives in the :rarum series where the performers themselves select the featured tracks. This one is John Surman Selected Recordings. Surman is an English saxophonist who started out as a great white hope baritone sax player in fairly straight ahead modern settings post Coltrane but who over the years has developed something more akin to the European ECM house style, gravitating more often to soprano sax and using more varied settings for his playing. Surman also plays bass clarinet and dabbles with various synthesizers, although the synths normally provide insistent background riffs over which to double track solos on one or more of the reed instruments. The selections show a good cross section from basic trio settings to those synth based numbers and a couple with folk influences which acknowledge Surman's west country roots. Some Bachian influences can also be detected; Surman had wide musical training as a child. Some of the tracks come from sessions where Surman was a sideman on someone else's project ( Barre Phillips and John Abercrombie for instance ) and the London based Brass Project also have a track. Other names that crop up include Paul Bley, Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette, Terje Rypdal and Miroslav Vitous. The :rarum series is most definitely a great place to start if you become interested in any of the musicians featured.