Arthur Doyle & Sunny Murray - At Glenn Miller Café

Sven Boija, Orkester Journalen

Saxophonist Arthur Doyle was practical unknown in Sweden when he made a tour here in the spring of 2000 together with the drummer Sunny Murray.

In OJ 5/2000 their concerts in Norrköping and Stockholm were reported. Here is now a recording with the duo from Glenn Miller Café were the intimate atmosphere and the reactions from the audience easily can be heard.

One of the regulars of Glenn Miller Café was Bengt Frippe Nordström. He always sat on the same chair close to the wall near the bar. The day before the concert it was decided that he should performe with Murray.

The album opens with three tracks which turned out to be Nordström's last performance, he died seven months later. Murray presents Nordström very nicely. The music is very varied and typical for Nordström. In the first track he is alone on his alto saxophone, he plays slow and sensitive with great vibrato. In the second track Murray joins. Nordström has got influences from Albert Ayler. One melody suggests Ayler's "D.C".

The main part of the album, 55 minutes, belongs to Murray together with Doyle. The musicians know each other and the interplay becomes a close giving and taking.
African Love Call starts expectant with spaces between the short phrases. At the end it burns when Doyle bursts his tenor saxophone tone. In Two Free Jazz Men Speak we can also hear Doyle's very personal and quit flute playing, he creates double tones by singing in the instrument. At the end he sings wordless and temperamental.
Doyle has made the well known melody Nature Boy to his own. He starts by slowly twist and turn the melody on his tenor saxophone. Doyle shifts to sing the text completely inimitable.

The duo made studio recordings three weeks before on the French label Fractal. These are issued on the album "Down On A New Vibration", OJ 2-3/2001. The live atmosphere gives a big plus for the Swedish album.