| 1. This album, That's My Life, was more than ten years in the making. But the seeds were planted long before that. Saxophonist and Drummer Tony Orrell met in 1979 in a Bristol-based band Spirit Level. Bristol would later become famous for cultural icons like Massive Attack, Portishead and Banks, but it had always been a magnet for creatives who didn’t want to live in London—offering artistic enclaves in the provinces’ mellower surroundings. This included the jazz that Orrell and Dunmall were exploring in their youth. While the British jazz scene has been defined by its parochial side, and lives in the shadows of America’s tradition—many musicians were drawn to powerful expressions of the exiled South African Blue Notes and Brotherhood of Breath, Keith Tippett, Kenny Wheeler, Tony Oxley and the Spontaneous Music Ensemble. Decades later, this recording documents the trio’s reunion as Paul Rogers returned from the States. They all shine as musicians, Orrell's drums moving confidently between ambitious rhythms, Rogers lending smooth, sexy basslines and Dunmall's saxophone simply on fire. The performance built on decades of collaboration, and remarkably varied lives, producing a delightful, delicious performance. Although critics tend to control the history of the music, often requiring neat categorization, musicians’ lives are as integral to their expression as formal training. In this case, that expression is as richly textured as the lives they've lived. Aptly named, That’s My Life, will be available on CD and digitally in January 2023 |
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