Album Notes

"STEVE LAWSON & JEZ CARR
Conversations
(Pillow Mountain: www.steve-lawson.co.uk)
Bassist: Lawson
Instrument: Fretless Modulus OB6
Lawson's second release, a totally improvised
collection features pianist Jez Carr. Lawson's
penchant for capturing the moment always
leaves room for fun surprises. recorded
live without "studio trickery," Lawson's
fretless (played through Line6 DL4 delay
pedal) conjures a massive range of tender,
brutal and sometimes hilarious emotions. (EF)"
- From June 2002 Bass Player Magazine,
Recommended Releases page.

'Conversations,' The much-anticipated new CD from acclaimed looping bassist Steve Lawson, and pianist Jez Carr, is a glorious, fragile, funny, moving collection of free improvisations or, more accurately, 'spontaneous compositions,' released in April 2002 on Pillow Mountain Records.

'Conversations' is the sound of two musicians not afraid to stretch, or to utilize the freedoms of the duet format to allow their musical frailty to communicate on a level that numerous overdubs and modifications after the event would surely diminish.

Nothing was planned or arranged before the 'record' light was on, hence the evolutionary approach, exploring in the moment the combination of Jez' schooled impressionistic, economical piano and Steve's stretchy adventurous range of extended techniques on fretless bass, looped and processed in real time to build an evocative sound canvass for Carr to explore.

Taking their starting point from somewhere between the Bill Evans/Jim Hall duet albums and Gary Peacock's various duo explorations with Ralph Towner and Bill Frisell, Lawson and Carr explore the kind of vocabulary and dialogue that is honed through years of playing together, week in week out.

Indeed, their regular 'standards' gigs in London's clubs and music venues are frequently punctuated by much freer material. often to great surprise and delight of their more adventurous listeners!

As a follow up to Steve Lawson's debut solo CD - 'and nothing but the bass'- 'Conversations' will surprise those listeners expecting more of the dense heavily processed soundscapes that permeated much of that CD, but they will no doubt be delighted at the frail, emotive yet playful dialogue that these two master improvisers conjure up.

In the two years since 'and nothing but the bass,' Steve Lawson has toured extensively in both the USA and France - including headlining shows at the Knitting Factory in Hollywood and Le Triton in Paris - appeared in magazines and on radio across Europe and the US building an appreciative following in the process, evidenced by the number of fans who ordered 'Conversations' ahead of the April 22nd release date.

Jez Carr has been a regular fixture on the London jazz scene for some time now, appearing alongside artists such as Mark Lockheart, Patrick Wood, Ben Castle, Mike Haughton, Phil Crabbe and Steve Gregory. His playing combines his love of jazz and improvised music witha melodic sensibility informed by the music he heard and played growing up in Uganda. Conversations sees his emergence from the world of the side-man as an assertive and lyrical voice on the piano with an incredibly bright future. Watch this space.