The album, 'Raise Four', came about through an invitation by radio presenter and producer Jez Nelson to double bassist Dave Green to put a project together for BBC Radio 3's Jazz On 3. Typically, Dave went for the musical jugular, pairing his trio - featuring saxophonist Iain Dixon and drummer Gene Calderazzo - with the great improvising saxophonist Evan Parker.
The set draws from purely improvised free music through to the compositions of Thelonious Monk and an exquisite ballad by Billy Strayhorn. Although it would be hard to equate the music with the leadership of anyone other than Dave Green, the music successfully flows freely and inspiringly between all the participants, achieving a musical conversation of the highest order.
Green has been a mainstay and leading figure on the European jazz scene for an incredible six decades, from early adventures with childhood friend, the late Rolling Stones drummer, Charlie Watts, through working with so many of the great names of on both sides of the Atlantic throughout the sixties and into the seventies. Including Sonny Rollins, Ben Webster, Stan Tracey, Coleman Hawkins, Don Rendell, Ian Carr, and Michael Garrick. As a long-time member of Humphrey Lyttleton's band, whilst also working successfully on the improvised jazz scene with luminaries such as John Stevens and Lol Coxhill, Dave Green has defied categorisation, instead focusing on the eclectic spark of creativity found in the moment. This approach has born fruits with his own musical projects, be-it in his band Fingers featuring Garrick and Coxhill with drummer Alan Jackson, to the trio of master improvisors presented here.
Dave Green: double bass
Iain Dixon: tenor saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet
Gene Calderazzo: drums
Evan Parker: tenor & soprano saxophones
Press:
Raise Four's short cartoon-like motif triggering a stirring, freely improvised duel between reedist Dixon and Parker with Green and drummer Calderazzo conjuring a whirlwind of edge-of-the-seat swing that has sonic as well as rhythmic excitement; Dixon's clarinet is Dolphy to Evan's Trane on 'Shuffle Boil' but both display a contrastingly heartfelt dreamy, fragile lyricism on Billy Strayhorn's 'A Flower is a Lovesome Thing'. - **** Jazzwise
It's an enjoyable album with first-rate playing - and I have no hesitation in recommending it. - Jazz Journal
Free-sax legend Evan Parker veers in and out of abstraction and classic themes by Monk and Billy Strayhorn with bassist Dave Green's trio on Raise Four. - The Guardian
