BADLAND (Simon Rose / Simon Fell / Steve Noble)

Event information

BADLAND

ROSE/ FELL/ NOBLE

"These British improvisers move forward with the intentions, audacity and forcefulness of a high powered rock trio…"
Glenn Astarita,  ALL MUSIC GUIDE

"Realised with a spiritual intensity that could liquefy steel, Badland destroys every one of commercial music’s delusions."
Hannes Schweiger, JAZZ LIVE

BADLAND are Simon Rose (Berlin) alto/ baritone saxophones, Simon H Fell (France) double bass, Steve Noble (London) drums. This reunion brings the trio together for a tour of England (Jazz Services) and a BBC ‘Jazz on 3’ session. BADLAND has received a variety of positive feedback for its sustained intensity and ability to go beyond the 'sax plus bass and drums' tag/trap. The trio is boy a collective force and a vehicle for the individual voices within it and exists happily at the cusp of free improvisation and free jazz. This tour will see the addition of the baritone sax, alongside Rose's customary alto.


‘Outstanding in its level of sustained excitement… genuinely dramatic music. A gripping release from start to finish.’ Julian Cowley, THE WIRE


…The trio toys with conventions of the sax, bass, drums format as, for instance, the patterns of Rose's circularly breathed lines propel the music along rather than drums or bass…along with arresting sheets of energy… Rose's playing comes off particularly well. Here is a player who has absorbed the extended reed techniques of free improvisation, and channeled those rippling waves into a focused approach to phrasing and pacing that never falls in to showcasing or bluster. Michael Rosenstein,  SIGNAL TO NOISE

Though they can roar along with full bore authority, there is far more at play here. The three morph the usual notion of horn against rhythm section into a setting for shifting fields of sonic events that still manage to careen along with rolling momentum…Michael Rosenstein, SIGNAL TO NOISE

…A similar process of encompassing musical extremes is also audible in miniature within each track: this is most obvious on the CD’s one extended  track, “Surface for Talice,” which ranges from quiet insect-music improv to an  exhilirating climax on which Rose plays with acetylene-torch heat. Nate Dorward,  CODA

The music fair blisters along, all three participants being on pretty fearsome form, and when you’ve heard it, it stays heard… Badland keeps everything together but on the edge. Barry Witherden, JAZZ REVIEW, Editor’s CD of the month September 2002

Simon Rose performances have ranged from solo to improvising orchestras in Europe, US and Canada. Interest as a free improviser developed exploring the possibilities created by purposefully limiting himself to the alto saxophone (solo alto ‘Procession’ FMR 2005). During the last two years while based in San Francisco and Berlin, Rose has introduced the baritone saxophone, exploring the possibilities offered by the larger bore’s harmonic range (solo baritone ‘Schmetterling’ Not Two Records, 2011). Recent collaborations in small groups have included Jan Roder, Clayton Thomas, Mark Sanders, Kjell Nordeson, Simon Fell, Steve Heater, Christian Marien, Oluyemi Thomas, Klaus Janek, Liz Allbee, Steve Noble, Olaf Rupp, Antonio Borghini, Chris Chafe, Kanoko Nishi, Ava Mendoza, Weasel Walter, Dave Tucker, Damon Smith, Scott Looney, Pauline Oliveros, Charity Chan, Colin Stetson, Yorgos Dimitriadis, Dominic Lash, Jen Baker, Jakki Tolvi, Thomas Helton, Hilary Jeffery, Klaus Kuervers, Alan Wilkinson and Pascal Nichols amongst others. Participation in large groups has been with Marco Eneidi Orchestra, London Improvisers Orchestra, Ensemble directed by Evan Parker and Roland Ramanan Tentet. CD recordings can be found on Bruce’s Fingers, Emanem, FMR, Rayon, Leo, PSI and Not Two.

Simon Fell is a composer and double bassist active in free improvisation and contemporary jazz and chamber music. He has worked in small or medium groups with John Butcher, Peter Brötzmann, Lol Coxhill, Billy Jenkins, Joe Morris, Keith Tippett, John Zorn, Derek Bailey, Joey Baron, Elliott Sharp, Billy Bang, Christian Marclay, Han Bennink and numerous others, and is a founder member of London Improvisers Orchestra. Regular groupings include SFQ, IST, Mick Beck's Something Else, Hession/Wilkinson/Fell and many more. He has presented compositions for improvisers at the LMC Festival, the Termite Festival, the Frakture Festival, Leo Records' Unsung Music Festival and on many other occasions. Fell’s compositions have been broadcast on BBC Radios 1, 3 & 4, and World Service as well as in in France, Belgium, Sweden, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Holland, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the U.S. He has presented compositions for improvisers at the LMC Festival, the Termite Festival, the Frakture Festival, Leo Records' Unsung Music Festival, Sheffield's Open Ears Festival, Stirling's Le Weekend, the Freedom of the City Festival, the BBC Electric Proms, the Cornerstone Festival and the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. His discography includes over 100 recordings.

Steve Noble studied with Nigeria master drummer Elkan Ogunde and in the early 1980s was a member of Rip Rig and Panic. Projects include Derek Bailey Company: (1987, 1989 and 1990), He appeared in the television series based on Bailey's book: Improvisation, it's nature and practice in music, Channel 4 (UK1992). A long-standing duet with reed and guitar player Alex Ward and pianist Alex Maguire trios with Davey William and Oren Marshall and Oren Marshall and Steve Buckley also 'And' with Derek Bailey and Pat Thomas the 4tet with Pat Thomas, John Edwards and John Telfer Tim Hill's Pandaemonium Brass Band and Trio Lol Coxhill's Standard Conversions Tristan Honsinger's This, Hans Koch/Jacques Dermierre Project, Steve Noble regularly collaborated with The Bow Gamelan Ensemble (performance artist/musician Paul Burwell), Work with dance groups includes Katie Duck and Group O, Steve Paxton. He has composed original music for Alessandro Certini and Mal Pelo dance companies.