On the CD «Odyssey,» Barry Guy, Marilyn Crispell and Paul Lytton play several of Barry Guy’s most beautiful compositions: «Harmos,» «Double Trouble,» and «Odyssey.» Barry Guy is a first class composer, even when we lose sight of this in face of his diverse work as an improvising bassist. In addition to works for contemporary orchestras and different chamber music ensembles (for example Kronos), he has written influential compositions for the London Jazz Composers Orchestra or the Barry Guy New Orchestra. In the trio, Barry Guy’s compositional talents and his special tone colors are fully evident. At the same time, the trio leaves space for the improvisational highlights of the three soloists.
„Odyssey, Barry Guy, Marilyn Crispell and Paul Lytton's first recording as a trio, is a magnificent muscial event. While it may not exist in a vacuum, Odyssey redefines motion and mood, reaching a level of interaction so high that it must surely be a signal moment in the history of modern trio music. Here, collective improvisation (four exquisitly gauged trio variations) and predetermined materials (five Guy compositions, including arrangements from the London Jazz Composers Orchestra and his New Orchestra books) are plotted with delicious ambiguity, an expertly conceived union of freedom and form. Pieces rarely pick up steam by conventional means; the overarching colors are grays and browns, shades that suggest something more than mere contemplation.
Individually, the musicians are transcendant. Percussionist Paul Lytton, an often underrated voice, provides a subtle network of layers, scrambling through appliances, including, what must be, a stray piece of sheet metal. Pianist Crispell, still a thundering force on occasion, returns to the neat, compact lyricism we have recently seen in her own trio with Gary Peacock and Paul Motion. Finally, there is bassist Guy, whose reach extends from astonishing arco effexts to rich, cascading pizzicato figures. Odyssey is his date; he deserves credit for the trio's absolute clarity of purpose.
Indeed, this is chamber music so finely nuanced that by the finale we're perfectly absorbed in the drama. After «Harmos» opens in a acrobatic bass-percussion exchange, Crispell enters halfway through, slowly unfolding a dirge (Ornette Coleman's «Lonely Woman» comes to mind) in a crescendo of sweeping majesty, a concentrated orchestral gesture rising to the end.
Greg Buium, Downbeat, USA, 6/2002
„Rarely, except perhaps in the freely improvising or spontaneously composing Jarrett, have I encountered such beauty stretched to breaking point, such intelligence seeking contrast in collective interplay. For those seeking harmony, I recommend the last track, “Harmos,” as an introduction before venturing into deeper waters."
Peter Ruedi. Die Weltwoche, 2002
