Amazon.co.uk Review: Saxophonist John Surman is best known for such stunning overdubbed improvisations as Upon Reflection and Private City and for his freely inventive Stranger Than Fiction quartet. But he is also a composer of stature. His oratorio Proverbs And Songs made it onto the Mercury Prize shortlist in 1998, and in Coruscating he focuses again on writing. The eight compositions here owe as much to the English pastoral tradition of Elgar, Vaughan Williams and Bridge as to the jazz tradition of, say, Ellington, combining a string quartet with two jazz soloists, Surman and bassist Chris Laurence. Elegiac, in places melancholic, but never less than ravishing, the pieces achieve a fine balance between formal composition and freewheeling improvisation. Surman's ethereal soprano sax and throaty baritone sax and bass clarinet dominate proceedings, notably on the sublime "Stone Flower", a heartfelt tribute to Ellington's baritone master, Harry Carney, while Laurence consistently reminds us why he is so in demand as a bass player par excellence. Hugely rewarding, and much recommended, this set is the exception to the rule that saxophone and strings rarely work well together. --Simon Adams
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Rating: - Outside of jazz and classsical the Autumn looks great.
On John Surman and Christopher Laurence's Coruscating, sax, bass and classical strings swoop clear and free as October skies - with no kitsch in sight this is Millennial music for our isle full of noises. Lacking the sometimes overbearing, older sister gravitas of Jan Garbarek's Officium project, and with no hint of minimalistic make-do (the music is too generous for that) there is a shy smile loose in these tunes that sounds wonderfully like the freedom for happy and sad thoughts to mingle ... Read More
