Developing a Free Approach

Saxophonist RAYMOND MACDONALD is co-leader of the Burt-MacDonald Quintet, one of the most adventurous jazz groups in Scotland. They return to An Tobar in Tobermory this month (as a quartet) to develop and perform a new commission
 

Arts Journal: Raymond, tell us a bit about the An Tobar commission in March.

Raymond MacDonald: We are going to be working on Mull for a week on a project. We were up there last year and had a great time, and Gordon McLean was very encouraging. We said than that we must do it again, and a couple of months ago Gordon raised the possibility of a week-long project in March in which they would commission some new work, we would work with some local kids, and do the concert. We would also make a CD there.
 

AJ: Is there a theme to the commission?

RM: They have a large clock in the middle of Tobermory, and they want us to do something around the idea of the clock, which is quite interesting, because we already have a tune I wrote called ‘Behind the Big Clock’, which was actually written about the clock at the Musee d’Orsay in Paris. We’ll do a bit of advance preparation for that, but again we will leave things open, particularly for working with the school kids. It’s important to leave space for things to develop in that context as well.

AJ: As well as the Burt-MacDonald Quintet, you have been very active in organising the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra, which is a very large ensemble dedicated to free improvisation, an area of music a lot of both musicians and listeners find daunting.

RM: Quite a lot of the people involved in this music feel that once you get past eight or nine players it is problematic to play completely free, but we are very committed to that, and that may be one of the main ways that we develop from here. I see an increasing interest in improvisation that is across the spectrum. I do a bit of television and film soundtrack work, and people I worked with there wanted to do some free improvisation. At the same time, I was working with Future Pilot AKA, and the same thing was happening there, so I was having the same conversations with musicians who were not involved with free improvisation or with each other, but were interested in exploring it.

AJ: Was that part of the point of forming the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra?
 

AJ: And you have had the chance to work with people like Evan Parker, Maggie Nichols, and shortly Gunter Sommer, who are all revered names in free improvisation.

RM: We really enjoyed working with Evan and Maggie last year, but we feel it is important to do some gigs without the star names as well. The band needs to maintain and develop its own identity.

AJ: There is a parallel situation with the Burt-MacDonald Quintet, isn’t there?

RM: That’s right – we have worked recently with both Keith Tippett and Harry Beckett, and we have an ongoing relationship with Lol Coxhill. I think it has all grown out of working with Lol, and the fun we have had doing that. It has given us the confidence to approach these artists. At the start of last year George and myself drew up a list of people we would like to work with, and Keith was at the top of it. That worked out really well. We would love to take the project with Keith further as well, and we are talking about that. He is really keen to visit the Highlands and Islands, actually. In fact, we had hoped it might be possible to do something with Keith for this project on Mull, but it was just too short notice this time. We all felt it was a successful project, and it worked well with our vocalist [Raymond’s sister, Nicola].
 

AJ: How did the Harry Beckett link come about?

RM:  I was lucky enough to get an invitation through Evan Parker to go down to London and work with the London Improvisers Orchestra at the Red Rose Club. On the gig I found myself sitting between Lol Coxhill and Harry Beckett, which was quite an experience. I had seen Harry play with Bill Wells during the Glasgow Jazz Festival a few years back, and Lol had always said that Harry would be a good person for the band to collaborate with, because he has an interest in free music but is also a very strong melody player. When I was sitting in between them having such a great time I just said to Harry that if the opportunity arose would he like to come up and play with us, and he did.

AJ: How much of what happens in these collaborations is mapped out in advance?

RM: What we tend to do is to prepare a range of possibilities in advance, and then in the time before the concert we will rehearse and see what works and what doesn’t, and we’ll leave space for things to develop, so that we are not going in with too rigid an idea of what to do. To be a true collaboration you have to leave that space for things to happen. I think one of the challenges for me and George [guitarist and co-leader George Burt] as we move forward is to try to synthesise the free stuff with our songs. With Keith I thought beforehand that we would do more free material, but he was keen to work with the more structured songs as well, and we ended up pretty much alternating them.

The Burt-MacDonald Quartet will be in residence at An Tobar from 13-19 March. The Quartet features Raymond MacDonald (saxophones), George Burt (guitar), George Lyle (bass), and Allan Pendreigh (drums). The Quintet version adds Nicola MacDonald (vocals). The band have a new CD, One Bloke, scheduled for release later this year.

© Kenny Mathieson, 2005
 

****STOP PRESS****
Raymond tells us that "we have just secured Keith Tippett to come with us to Mull, but only to record. He can't do the gig at the end of the week, as he has to be back down south, but we are very excited about being able to bring him back up to work with us."
 

Related Link

• An Tobar website