John Edwards | Steve Noble | Yoni Silver - HEME (January 2022 Shrike Records)

At an empty Café Oto during COVID Lockdown in April 2021, three of London’s foremost improvisers recorded seven tracks which reflect their inventive approach to free improvisation. Building on Steve Nobel and Yoni Silver’s previous work together as a duo on HOME, they were joined by the inexhaustible talents of double bass player John Edwards. Steve and John are no strangers to each other and, with Yoni’s talents for invention with the bass clarinet, the trio have pieced together a freshly textural and teasingly explorational set of tracks. Noble's powerful and shape-shifting percussion underpinning and interlocking with Edwards’s bass, pushing the sound into fresh territories.; Silver’s masterful and ever innovative clarinet weaving and breaking new ground for the trio to explore.

1. A 13:03

2. Tunica Intima 07:45

3. B 05:26

4. Tunica Media 09:50

5. C 11:26

6. Tunica Externa 11:25

7. O 07:07

John Edwards - Double bass

Steve Noble - Drums/cymbals and percussion’

Yoni Silver - Bass clarinet

Recorded by Shaun Crook at Cafe Oto on 24/4/21

Mixed by Yoni Silver

Mastered by Jeff Ardron of Saint Austral Sound

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Duck Baker - Confabulations (June 25, 2021 ESP - Disk')

In his five-decade career, finger-style acoustic guitarist Duck Baker has played in lots of styles, from folk (real folk, such as Scottish and Irish fiddle tunes) to blues to jazz, in the latter genre particularly focusing on bebop greats, with whole albums devoted to the music of Thelonious Monk and Herbie Nichols. But he has flashed an avant-garde side as well, and of course ESP-Disk’ was interested in exposing more of the latter work. This album of duos and trios with an all-star roster of players, mostly British, collects recordings ranging from 1994 through 2017.

1. Imp Romp 2

2. Shenandoah

3. Indie Pen Dance

4. East River Delta Blues

5. Ode to Jo

6. Duo for 225 Strings

7. The Missing Chandler

8. Tourbillion Air

9. Pope Slark

10. Signing Off

Duck Baker, guitar on all tracks

Derek Bailey, guitar, #3 (7/4/2002)

Steve Beresford, piano, #6 (9/18/2009)

John Butcher, tenor saxophone, #7 (9/19/2009)

Mark Dresser, bass, #2, #9 (1994)

Michael Moore, alto saxophone, #1 (10/10/2008)

Roswell Rudd, trombone, #4, #10 (1/9/2002)

Alex Ward, clarinet; Joe Williamson, bass, #5 (9/12/2010)

Alex Ward, clarinet; John Edwards, bass; Steve Noble, drums, #8 (3/7/2017)

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Binker Golding / John Edwards / Steve Noble - Moon Day (April 2021 Byrd Out)

Binker Golding, John Edwards & Steve Noble return to Byrd Out for an album of unparalleled instant creativity: 'Moon Day'. The album plays with the post truth zeitgeist, using the first major moon conspiracy of 1835 as a launch pad, throwing a sly wink at Buzz Aldrin as the trio impart on their own musical odyssey. The sheer variety of pace, tone and texture across the record is breathtaking, from Golding’s soft, almost weightless opening on ‘One Giant Step’ through to the skittish re-entry of ‘Reflection’ as the musicians ricochet off one another, the album bursts with ideas and energy, yet remains coherent and singular in its purpose.

Recorded during a gap between the various lockdowns of 2020, you can sense the release from the musicians as they combine after enforced isolation with a telepathic sense of where to push each other: Noble interjecting both chaos and order from the drums; Edwards the rocket fuel propelling the unit on; and Golding soaring and cutting through on sax. You will not find a better showcase of these musicians’ phenomenal abilities. This is free jazz at its most compelling and most engaging. ‘Moon Day’ is undoubtedly a future jazz classic.

1. One Giant Step, Parts i-iv 23:52

2. Reflection 05:15

3. Lunar Wind 15:42

4. For S.K. 20:21

5. One Giant Step, Part iii (Laika's Short Orbit Edit) 05:44

6. For S.K. (Stage H Edit) 02:24

Binker Golding - Tenor & soprano saxophones

John Edwards - Double Bass

Steve Noble - Drums

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Chessex / Noble / Edwards – 12.12.16 (2017)

Composer, saxophonist and sound artist Antoine Chessex is usually known for playing through distorting stacks of guitar amplifiers to create monolithic walls of noise and texture, but on 12.12.16 he teamed up with free music giants John Edwards and Steve Noble to play an all acoustic trio – an attempt to deconstruct the ‘classic’ formula of the tenor sax, bass and drums. Right off the bat Chessex’s extended technique reaches combustable energy levels, and Edwards and Noble push pace and space to a taut intensity. Recorded live at Cafe OTO by Shaun Crook on Sunday 12th December, 2016. Mixed and mastered by James Dunn. Photo by Dawid Laskowski.

Antoine Chessex is a composer, saxophonist and sound artist whose works assume a wide diversity of forms, crossing the boundaries between noise, modern composition, improvisation and electronic music. His live performances are characterized by textural density and microtonal tensions often resulting in sound masses exploring the physical dimensions of spaces. Chessex presents his works worldwide and has collaborated extensively with Zbigniew Karkowski, Valerio Tricoli, Apartment House and Jérôme Noetinger among others. He is a founding member of the noise band Monno.
Steve Noble is London’s leading drummer, a fearless and constantly inventive improviser whose super-precise, ultra-propulsive and hyper-detailed playing has galvanized encounters with Derek Bailey, Matthew Shipp, Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith, Stephen O’Malley, Joe McPhee, Alex Ward, Rhodri Davies and many, many more.

In the early eighties, Noble played with the Nigerian master drummer Elkan Ogunde, Rip Rig and Panic, Brion Gysin and the Bow Gamelan Ensemble, before going on to work with the pianist Alex Maguire and with Derek Bailey (including Company Weeks 1987, 89 and 90). He was featured in the Bailey’s excellent TV series on Improvisation for Channel 4 based on his book ‘Improvisation; its nature and practise’. He has toured and performed throughout Europe, Africa and America and currently leads the groups N.E.W (with John Edwards and Alex Ward) and DECOY (with John Edwards and Alexander Hawkins).

John Edwards is a true virtuoso whose staggering range of techniques and boundless musical imagination have redefined the possibility of the double bass and dramatically expanded its role, whether playing solo or with others. Perpetually in demand, he has played with Evan Parker, Sunny Murray, Derek Bailey, Joe McPhee, Lol Coxhill, Peter Brötzmann, Mulatu Astatke and many others.

Steve Noble & Kristoffer Berre Alberts - Coldest Second Yesterday (2016) CLEAN FEED RECORDS

Here’s one more episode of the British / Scandinavian connection established in the domains of improvised music. And sure it’s a special one, reuniting a second generation figure of the 50 year old London scene, drummer Steve Noble, and one of the top saxophonists coming from the Trondheim’ creative jazz crib, Kristoffer Berre Alberts. 

Noble was a member of the legendary avant-pop band Rip Rig and Panic and a partner of Derek Bailey in many adventures, also playing with Tristan Honsinger, Alan Wilkinson and in the unforgettable collective Kahondo Style. Alberts is making waves in such different groups like Saka and Starlite Motel, with its strong rock pulse, and Cortex, known for its post-free jazz attitude. Together they act like an elephant in a porcelain shop, but in a good way. 

The music is dense and intense, seeming to drag everything that happens to be in their path, and yet it includes little details, inviting you in each moment to find them amongst the walls of sound. At the end of “Coldest Second Yesterday” you feel “experienced”, and that’s the best you can have from a recording.

1. Animal Settlement 6:41

2. Inclination 11:32

3. Order Left Behind 16:07

Steve Noble, drums 

Kristoffer Berre Alberts, tenor saxophone

Recorded by Christian Obermayer 4th of august 2015 at Kulturhuset, Oslo

Mixed and mastered by Christian Obermayer

Produced by Noble and Alberts

Executive production by Pedro Costa for Trem Azul

Design by Travassos

Julie Kjær 3 - Dobbeltgænger (2016) CLEAN FEED RECORDS

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Julie Kjær 3 - Dobbeltgænger (2016)

The list of astonishing women saxophonists is getting bigger, and to that list there’s one more name you should add: Julie Kjær. Originally from Denmark, but living in the United Kingdom and active on the London scene, this new star on the rise brings trouble, in a good, very good way, to every place she goes.

Kjær has played with Django Bates in the band StoRMChaser, she is a member of Paal Nilssen-Love’s Large Unit and the London Improvisers Orchestra, at the same time leading or co-leading projects with Danish and British musicians like Pierette Ensemble and Musson/Kjær/Marshall, and associating herself with prized performers like Hannah Marshall, Alison Blunt, John Russel, Veryan Weston and Steve Beresford.

Now, she debuts a record with two veterans in the fields of open form jazz and free improvisation, John Edwards and Steve Noble. And what a record it is! The trio experiments with the confluences between composition and spontaneity, and between classical elements, the kind of drive you only find in jazz, and extended techniques coming from the most extreme exploratory music. Sound and rhythm are her main focus, pushing the envelope in any circumstances and often surprising even those who are used to new ideas and approaches. The music here is either wild or subtle, intense or minimalistic, but always precious. You don’t want to miss it.

01. Out of Sight

02. Face

03. Alto Madness

04. Pleasantly Troubled

05. Dear Mr. Bee

06. Dobbeltgænger

Julie Kjær  alto saxofone

John Edwards  double bass

Steve Noble  drums

All compositions by Julie Kjær (KODA) except track 4 by Julie Kjær (KODA)/John Edwards (PRS)/Steve Noble (PRS)

Recorded at Vortex Jazz Club by Alex Ward on 13th January 2015

Mixed and mastered by Alex Ward

Produced by Julie Kjær

Executive production by Pedro Costa for Trem Azul

Design by Travassos

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