A couple of very nice reviews in this month’s Jazzwise…from Duncan Heining on Volume 1 of the albums:
Decoy vol.1 Spirit – ****
Decoy are a real powerhouse of a nad that play music that’s as coherent and concise as it is freely improvised. Maybe it’s the sound of the B3 but somehow this record just evokes so many memories for me. It’s everything from ‘The Abominable’ Dr. Phibes to Graham Bind, Brian Auger, Keith Emerson and Rick Wright. It footnotes Jimmy Smith and Jack McDuff, before spiralling off into Larry Young, Lifetime and Lonnie Liston Smith. Make no mistake guys, this is an improvising trio that rocks and swings so hard it’s dangerous. If drummer Steve Noble and Alex Hawkins power this storm, then John Edwards is perhaps the only bassist who could hold the line in this maelstrom and even force the pace. It’s not all relentless. This stuff gets downright spooky at times, It got me thinking about sci-fi movies like 2001, Solaris and Alien. It made me want to dig out all those records, watch those films and set the controls for the heart of the sun. That’s how good it is.
…and also one of our gig with Joe McPhee (for news on the recording of which , watch this space…)
Cafe Oto happens in an old boozer that seems to be in the process of conversion, though into what it’s hard to guess. It oozes low-dive credibility and drips atmosphere. Add to that intelligent programming and an open-minded audience and you have Cafe Oto’s recipe for success.
There’s a hip informality about the place that seemed to suit Chicago tenor player Joe McPhee very nicely. Not that there was anything remotely langorous about him or Decoy. This was a night of full-on, righteous free jazz.
Amazingly, McPhee had never played with the group before, though both sets appeared so seemless and coherent. As for Decoy, this excellent organ-led free-improvising trio might just be the best new band to emerge this year, Alexander Hawkins, a fine piano player, is also an incredible organist – more Keith Emerson than Jimmy Smith, more Larry Young than Graham Bond. And with a rhythm section of Steve Noble and John Edwards, this is a band that redefine the words ’shock and awe’.
McPhee was as mighty as he was magnificent with a tenor sound that could lay waste to cities. Just pray god, he only ever uses it for peaceful purposes. And you could, as ever, walk on the bass lines that John Edwards plays, while Steve Noble rolled and rage [sic] around the beat. And yet the two sets were quite different. Where the first locked together from the git-go and flowed effortlessly through gospel, blues and almost middle-eastern sounding modes, the second began with a fractured, angular internal dialogue. It was as if having met and spoken, they now needed to dig deeper to find that common core. At times, you just held your breath, as the dynamic built demanding release. Then suddenly it came, wave after wave, surge after surge to final and blessed relief.