Search - Mark Turner :: Mark Turner

An intelligent major-label debut

N. Dorward | Toronto, ON Canada | 09/04/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"For years now there's been in avant-garde circles a convergence of the Coltrane & Tristano legacies--Anthony Braxton famously numbers Warne Marsh among his formative influences, & Evan Parker has similarly managed to simultaneously push Coltrane's late free-jazz explorations a couple steps further while also touching on the Cool School. (Their duets on the 1993 London live disc on Leo certainly take cues from the polyphony of Konitz & Marsh.) Mark Turner's Warner debut suggests that more mainstream players have similarly begun to make connections between two apparently disparate styles. Turner's favourite Coltrane period seems to be the Atlantics--here there's a Victor Lewis composition that harks back to "Giant Steps" plus Coltrane's "26-2", a "Confirmation" variant from the _Coltrane's Sound_ sessions that like "Giant Steps" uses movement in thirds. The Warne Marsh influence is most overt on "Autumn in New York", & on "317 East 32nd Street", Tristano's variant on "Out of Nowhere"; on this track as on a couple others Joshua Redman is added, & the tenors' sparring is highly impressive. Though Turner prefers a direct & unfussy approach to tunes, he clearly likes rhythmic variety--of the 8 tracks here, two are waltzes, one is in free time (Ornette Coleman's "Kathelin Gray", given a rhapsodic reading that owes, as Turner admits in the liner notes, a lot to the Paul Motian Trio's approach) and one is in 5/4, while the Coltrane tune is reworked as a samba.This is an excellent album. I've not given it quite top marks, as Turner's not a strongly characterized player, perhaps--he does excellent things with an well-absorbed array of influences, but I'm not sure I'd be able to pick him out of a lineup with Chris Potter, Chris Cheek, Seamus Blake & Joshua Redman in it. But it's still a worthwhile & engaging album, exciting while never taking the obvious routes."