Life to Life (Whirlwind Recordings)
Jason Rebello and Tim Garland
Released February 17, 2023
Jazzwise Top 30 Albums of the Year 2023
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About:
Life to Life documents the culmination of three decades worth of respectful colleagueship between with two of the UK’s most revered jazz musicians – keyboardist Jason Rebello and multi-reedist Tim Garland. Rebello and Garland are both lauded musicians who between with them have worked with luminaries such as Sting, Chick Corea, Wayne Shorter and Jeff Beck.
Also long-time friends, the pair felt that it was time for their duo format to blossom at this point in their careers: “I just feel that we have to make music together,” says Rebello, “it’s a natural outcome of two people that have known each other for a long time. It’s also a learning experience,” he adds. “For me, it’s Tim’s composition and creative abilities and ideas that I’ve really learned from.” Garland agrees, “the thing about learning from each other – it’s pretty crucial. When you’re playing in a duet situation, you need that solid grounding. Every single thing you do, every part of the piano, every part of the horn is so evident. That grounding helps my more cerebral side to lock in with the now of the music and that’s why it’s so good for me to be working with Jason.”
Album opener ‘Two To Go’ refers to Rebello and Garland sharing the experiences of life on the road, a change of pace follows with ‘Soul Resonance’. “With these two new pieces” says Tim, “I wanted to minimise any compositional complexity and embody the essentials; the first with a solid but unhurried groove and the second through use of tone, line and spaciousness”. ‘One Morning’ and ‘Samaii For Peace’ are from Garland’s back catalogue, reinterpreted here as duets. ‘One Morning’ features an arresting melody, whilst the celebratory theme of ‘Samaii For Peace’ soars above a complex time signature, handled effortlessly by Rebello.
Rebello’s compositions ‘As Free As The River’ and the flowing, yet intricate ‘Fire Of Benevolence’ demonstrate his fine compositional skills and allow Garland’s honeyed sax lines to standout. ‘No Hope No Tears’, also by Rebello, provides an easily-met challenge for Garland on bass clarinet, and Chick Corea’s ‘Children’s Song No.6’ features as an homage to the Late jazz icon. Garland provides punchy melody lines courtesy of the seldom-heard sopranino saxophone – acknowledging Corea’s love for flute-register instruments. Speaking about Rebello’s composition ‘The Missing Ingredient’, Garland says, “we were after one particular type of number that we felt was not yet on the album. It turned out to be one that Jason wrote just the day before the session.” He continues, “there’s a spontaneous energy in it. After we heard it back, we thought, yeah, that’s the album complete now.”
Life To Life ends with a new and evocative arrangement of the Appalachian / Scottish folk tune ‘Black Is The Colour (Of My True Loves Hair’). “There’s an elemental beauty about some of these folk melodies,” says Garland, “they’re irreducible, a form of human expression that feels timeless. It’s powerful to tap into something so raw.”
Garland and Rebello assuredly demonstrate their shared instinctive and visceral musicianship on this 10-track duo record, which serves as an authentic output of the story so far of a strong and long-lasting friendship between two highly accomplished musicians.
Track Listing:
1. Two To Go (Tim Garland) 7:18
2. Soul Resonance (Tim Garland) 5:44
3. The Missing Ingredient! (Jason Rebello) 3:58
4. One Morning (Tim Garland) 6:44
5. No Hope No Tears (Jason Rebello) 6:28
6. Fire Of Benevolence (Jason Rebello) 5:02
7. Children’s Song No. 6 (Chick Corea) 3:59
8. As Free As The River (Jason Rebello) 5:24
9. Samaii For Peace (Tim Garland) 5:41
10. Black Is The Colour (Traditional) 4:20
Personnel:
Tim Garland: tenor, soprano and sopranino sax, bass clarinet
Jason Rebello: piano
Recorded Spring and Summer (2022), at School Farm Studios and Oak Gable Studio
Engineered by Andy Maxwell and Stefano Civetta
Mixed by Rob Kelly
Mastering Engineer: Andrew Tulloch (The Blue Studio)
Photography by Andrew Lawson
Graphic Design by Nadja von Massow / nadworks
Produced by Tim Garland and Jason Rebello
Executive Producer: Michael Janisch
Review:
Exceptionally well-conceived and flawlessly executed, Garland and Rebello have come up with nine original compositions between them, plus the folk ballad ‘Black Is The Colour Of My True Love’s Hair’ (which Garland performs on bass clarinet), that re-conceptualise the duo context in jazz. The exposition of each original composition is orchestrated in a way that often sounds more than two voices, and on occasion a closely voiced piano chord with Garland’s sax evokes the sound of an old polyphonic synth. The duality of the written and the improvised is powerfully exploited, though contrast or blurring the distinction between the two so that the written seamlessly gives way to the improvised and vice versa. Equally, as in ‘One Morning’ the two voices join in collective improvisation to sound like one voice as they weave and intertwine. In many ways, this album is not so much about individual tracks as their culminative effect, each a way station along the path of overall narrative arc that seems to be in a constant state of becoming.
Stuart Nicholson (Jazzwise)
