Search - Paul Dunmall :: I Wish You Peace

Who will gainsay the music of Paul Dunmall?

Jan P. Dennis | Monument, CO USA | 10/30/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"British free jazzer Paul Dunmall has released his finest disc to date. Leader of the avant-garde British jazz group Mujician, a major player on the international free-jazz scene, Dunmall here moves far beyond that project, which, to me, always seemed a little on the precious side, into the deep and nearly uncharted waters of big-band free jazz.



One perhaps thinks of Sam Rivers's recent big-band free-jazz projects (Inspiration and Culmination), or maybe Cecil Taylor and the Italian Instabile Orchestra's Owner of the Riverbank, but to me this is a beast of a different color, at once more rooted, more grounded, and more set free.



Talk about earthereal (earthy and ethereal); these guys are all over it. I don't know that there has ever been music of such wide ranging free sensibilities yet so approachable. Certainly some of the Ogun discs (e.g., Ixesha and Spirits Rejoice) approached this combination of structural ecstasy, controlled chaos, and free roots, but since they are in such a specifically South African jazz context, they perhaps don't entirely correlate to the wonderful music herein contained. The closest thing, at least to these ears, is the entirely remarkable Louis Moholo discs Viva La Black and Exile (both Ogun), and perhaps some of Sean Bergin's projects. But, truth be told, Dunmall tops them all.



Probably not for everyone, I Wish You Peace should be at least heard by anyone who aspires to appreciate modern free jazz of the highest order."