First Houses

First House
Cantilena (1986)
Erèndira (1989)
ECM Records

Produced by Manfred Eicher

Personnel:
Ken Stubbs - alto, soprano saxophones
Django Bates - piano, tenor horn
Mick Hutton - bass
Martin France - drums, percussion

A short lived quartet that managed to pump out a pair of rather sublime records, both horribly out of print but sometimes appear in your local used jazz section. I was drawn initially by the appearance of Django Bates (and to a lesser degree Mick Hutton) of Bill Bruford's Earthworks. He and and Iain Ballamy *provided an inventive, unpredictable frontline, and Mick a solid anchor-point to Bruford in the early electro-acoustic lineups of the band. Here, Bates and Hutton provide much of the same. Even though Stubbs is not as versatile as Ballamy and France not quite in the same league of play as Mr. Bruford, this quartet plays to it's strengths, which are more ethereal, less angular, cerebral and aggressive. The sound, like many other ECM label releases, is often pastoral and very "European" in tone. But FH is less about the chamber jazz, with Stubbs and Bates having bursts of heat to punctuate the more Wayne Shorter-like meandering passages.

Either (both) albums are worth picking up.


* Ballamy is also known for his collaboration with multimedia artist Dave McKean (the Sandman and Cages graphic books and the movie Mirrormask)