Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Lol Coxhill / Enzo Rocco: Fine Tuning - The Gradisca Concert

180

Lol Coxhill / Enzo Rocco: Fine Tuning - The Gradisca Concert

By

Sign in to view read count
Lol Coxhill / Enzo Rocco: Fine Tuning - The Gradisca Concert
There are no hard and fast rules that suggest improvised music cannot be a congenial undertaking. Free expressionism should not always be engineered upon overly cerebral formats and ideologies, contrary to popular belief. Fabled saxophonist Lol Coxhill and prominent Italian guitarist Enzo Rocco conjure the best of both worlds throughout this amiable set, recorded live at a festival in Italy.

For decades, Coxhill has been a staple within the British free-jazz movement, yet is a supremely versatile artist who has appeared on progressive-rock and mainstream jazz outings. Here, he aligns with Rocco for a continuous piece that is built on extended note contrasts and upbeat dialogues, spiced with the guitarist's willowy single note runs.

The duo effectively uses space to create some breathing room in between dialogues but usually operates within a steady state mode to complement the variances in pitch, perpetuating a lighthearted manner of suspense via these ongoing inventions, sketched by intuitive interactions and a magnetic resonance. More important, the musicians do not barrage with a cacophonous onslaught and focus, primarily, on the development of subtle melodies and odd-metered choruses.

Rocco's meticulous and animated lines are abetted by closed-hand techniques and linear passages, often serving as the rhythmic element, while Coxhill's wily means of mimicking and dishing out contrapuntal phrasings are designed with pleasantness and keenly offset with edgy overtones. The duo instill a budding current, tangled with a web-like array of deviations that induce notions of synchronicity, for free improvisation framed upon the duo's charismatic exchanges and unbridled synergy.

Track Listing

Fine Tuning.

Personnel

Lol Coxhill
saxophone, soprano

Lol Coxhill: soprano saxophone; Enzo Rocco: guitar.

Album information

Title: Fine Tuning - The Gradisca Concert | Year Released: 2011 | Record Label: Amirani Records

Comments

Tags


For the Love of Jazz
Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who create it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

You Can Help
To expand our coverage even further and develop new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for a modest $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination will vastly improve your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

Sensual
Rachel Z
Over and Over
Tony Monaco Trio
Love Is Passing Thru
Roberto Magris

Popular

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.