JOHN SURMAN — How Many Clouds Can You See? (review)

JOHN SURMAN — How Many Clouds Can You See? album cover Album · 1970 · Avant-Garde Jazz Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
Sean Trane
Surman’s second solo album (still on the Decca subsidiary progressive music label Deram) is more in the line of what the average Jazzjoe can expect from him, but still holds its share of surprises. The baritone man still headed two different line-ups, a trio with two US citizens (Bare Phillips and Stu Martin), who for work visa reasons had to relocate to Belgium, and an octet based in England, and featuring a lot of London-scene stalwarts like Beckett, Osborne, Miller, Skidmore, Taylor, Jackson and more. So, when this album was recorded, it was kind of a mix of both types of bands, even if drummer Martin doesn’t appear at all. A rather strange album title, for a bland album artwork, but it features the usually-funny “10 liner notes for the price of one”, courtesy of Mike Kington.

Opening with the octet, Galata Bridge (in Istanbul and originally written for Westbrook), starts rather dissonant, but after a couple minutes grows in energy to become much more accessible, but unfortunately a lengthy drum solo breaks the band’s inertia, and one it kicks back in it returns to the dissonant realm, but much more energetically. The Caratacus track (named after a Celt tribe chief) is a duet between Surman’s sax and Jackson’s drums, but it fails to grab my attention, despite Surman’s higher-than-usual scales use. The following Premonition returns with a slightly different and augmented octet line-up (now a dirty dozen), and starts dramatically intense over a slow-tempo. Taylor’s piano is simply spellbinding, but the general mood tends to go incredibly tense and dissonant. Again, the drums break the momentum with yet another (but shorter) solo (this time Oxley), but when the track returns Taylor tickles his piano keys with astounding dramatic intensity, before the full band returns to bring organized chaos and near-orgasmic intensity.

The remaining two tracks (including the three-part suite Event) are the works of an unusual (for Surman, anyway) quartet, with Taylor, Phillips and Oxley backing our baritone man. The Gathering part of the Event track is rather dissonant and features sax and drums mostly, while the Clouds title track is much more solemn and Surman dubs himself on Barry’s tone, and it is more accessible a celebration Circle Dance, with Taylor’s piano getting much exposure. Easily the best of the small-group tracks on this album.

Despite featuring a big part of the London jazz scene crowd (except for the Carr-Ardley-Garrick faction), Clouds is certainly not a typical Surman album, but one definitely worth a listen, if only for the two octet tracks, that are overflowing dramatic effects. I‘m definitely less a fan of the smaller formation tracks of the album, but the album is still worth a shot at finding its spot on your shelves.

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