CD review: Evan Parker, John Edwards, Steve Beresford, Mark Sanders – Foxes Fox 2020: Video, CD cover

Areappearance for the quartet that made the Foxes Fox album for the Emanem label in 1999 – which was a showcase for Evan Parker, one of Europe’s most original sax innovators out of the Coltrane/Pharoah Sanders school, but also a demonstration of accessible free-improv, thanks in large part to the dramatic and impassioned percussion-playing of South African drummer Louis Moholo.

Steve Beresford (piano) and John Edwards (bass) completed the lineup then, and they return for these four tracks, made last year, to mark Moholo’s move back to South Africa. Three songs are long – the opener is 31 minutes.

However, the constant urging of Moholo’s swing, the splashy high-note effects of Beresford and the elemental roar of Edwards’ bass provides a dramatic landscape for Parker’s restlessly inventive journeys. The title track’s half-hour odyssey is full of surging collective energy, varied by spacious, reflective episodes and startling sound effects. The shorter Slightly Foxed is patient and quieter, revolving around Parker’s short-burst phrasing and Moholo’s tom-tom rumbles. Fierce free-jazz, but majestically compelling.

1. Foxes Fox 29:31

Evan Parker – saxophone
John Edwards- double bass
Steve Beresford – piano
Mark Sanders – drums