Great Players Jean Toussaint and Byron Wallen

[Mikec]

played last night at Marlow.
Jean Toussaint has a VERY big sound. It's also very full and rich, though he can play very brightly at will. His style is difficult to describe, he sort of strangles the sax into squeezing out convoluted short phrases which he drops into the music. A bit like coming across abstract sculptures in a forest. (Pretentious? Moi?). He is constantly exploring the form of whatever he's playing and looking for ideas from the other musicians in the band. One of the highlights was Jean's soprano duet with the bass player (Matt Ridley), something I've never heard before. Perhaps THE highlight was an unaccompanied duet with trumpeter Byron Wallen where they weaved a two-strand texture of great beauty and in perfect synch. Wallen has a sound reminiscent of Miles Davis, but his style is very different. He is more like Frank Beckett, and would slot into the seventies band "Brotherhood of Breath" very well, if they were still around. He uses the full range of timbres to be wrested from a trumpet and a few more besides to create long exciting lines.
They both displayed great joy and exuberance and everyone thoroughly enjoyed the gig.
Dennis Smith played drums, and Frank Toms piano.

 

[dan]

I was taught by Jean, he is an amazing guy. Very generous with information and has an incredible sound. He also has some fascinating tales to tell too!

Dan

 

[Mikec]

I attended the summer school at the London Guildhall where he was one of the tutors; as you say, an amazing guy, but sadly we didn't have any time for tales. (The drummer, Trevor Tomkins, made time for a few, though...). We were discussing tonal qualities with Jean and Malcolm Marshall using words like bright, thin, dark, full etc., and someone asked how he would describe Jan Garbarek's sound. He just said "reverb!"