John Surman - Coruscating (ECM, 1999)

John Surman, soprano & baritone saxes, bass & contrabass clarinets

Chris Laurence, bass

Keith Pascoe, violin
Rita Manning, violin
Bill Hawkes, viola

Nick Cooper, cello

Recorded January 1999
CTS Studios, London
Engineer: Markus Heiland

Many jazz artists, including Clifford Brown and Charlie Parker, aspired to record standard songs with strings, hoping to dignify the jazz genre back in the 1950s. Coruscating is not John Surman's attempt at a "strings" album. Instead, he uses a string quartet as an integral context for eight improvisations. 

Chris Laurence's bass is essential to Surman's artistic vision of expanding improvisation to an instrument usually assigned a supporting role. As a seasoned jazz artist, Laurence has collaborated with Surman since the 1970s. He has contributed to British jazz even longer, working with virtually all of Britain's jazz luminaries over the past 60 years.

The supporting ensemble is named The Trans4mation String Quartet, assembled by Surman for this recording. The quartet was reunited for The Spaces in Between (ECM, 2007). Surman and Laurence are the primary soloists on both albums. Coruscating is a moody, mostly nocturnal program in which the string quartet shapes and shifts the context for the soloists. 

The minor "At Dusk," with Surman on soprano sax, serves as a prelude for what follows. On the second track, "Dark Corners," the strings paint the mood with a series of chords over which Laurence improvises a bass solo. As unusual as that may sound, it works beautifully. Surman's bass clarinet further darkens the texture as the music intensifies, then abates. "Dark Corners" is relatively brief at 4:57 minutes, it but succeeds on all levels.

Another somber, yet celebratory, number follows: "Stone Flower," dedicated to Harry Carney. Surman switches to baritone sax, which he plays with uncommon delicacy and lyricism, appropriate for honoring Carney, who played the same way for decades in Duke Ellington's band. 

The next five numbers are more extended works, each apparently arranged around separate movements. For example, "Winding Passages" winds through a minor-key introduction by the strings, then moves to a dancing unison section for bass and baritone, punctuated by string chords at the end of each bar. (I picture elephants dancing!) The remainder of "Winding Passages" features improvised sections by string bass and bass clarinet, which exude urgency before calming to a satisfying conclusion.

"An Elusive Shadow" is music originally composed by Surman for a ballet. It introduces the contrabass clarinet, which stretches the group's sound pallet enormously. At 9:24 minutes, this piece resembles film music divided into movements for different scenes. Toward the end, Surman's soprano sax sings like a bird, followed by a final movement that returns to the shadows.

With the sole exception of "Crystal Walls," whose movements feel less coherent, I find Coruscating to be impeccably played and thoroughly rewarding.