Sean Trane Some kind of logic continuation of Osborne’s 70’s group, even though drummer Moholo (RIP I think) was not there to fill the stool (held by Peter Nykyroj), but bassist Miller is still in the fold. Along for the adventure are ex-Tippet cohort Mark Charig (on trumpet, rather than flugelhorn) and guitarist Jeff Green, but this doesn’t mean that the quintet is out for a quiet Sunday stroll. I won’t bother explaining the album’s title, even if there is no title track or evidently–linked names relating to the concept.

As you can probably guess, from first notes of the opening 9-mins Molten Lead will not be an easy digestion and the unease culminates with the closing dissonant fast riff. Of more interest in the 10-mins Sea Mist, which opens calmly on bowed bass (Miller is so excellent an archer), but things go dissonant fairly quickly, mostly under Osborne’s direction, but Charig takes over in the same fashion, then Miller, etc… On the flipside, things are much more melodic with the fast post-bop of Where’s Freddy, with both winds blowing from the twin-turbo engine, firing from all cylinders, even though this hardly a walk through a quiet forest, with Charig’s trumpet storming through the woods, backed by Green’s Djangoloid guitar and then Nykyroj emptying his drum bullets on whatever life hadn’t fled yet, but the last 90 seconds are the best moment of the album, with plenty of drama. The closing Wish I Knew is a Billy Smith cover, which might sound a little lame next to the two tracks on the A-side, because it’s rather a standard melodic ballad, although Charig’s slightly Spanish trumpet ads some rather welcome romantics.

Still a bit surprisingly, like much of its catalogue, the Ogun label reissued this album as a CD, coupled with 74’s Border Crossing as a 2on1 mini-Lp format, and the package is well worth investigated (and invested in) by all fans of the Swinging London-jazz scene. A bit of a schizophrenic release with diametrically opposed sides, where the free-experimental adventures on the opening side contrasting heavily with the gentler more melodic flipside. Your call, but the 2on1 sounds like a must-investigate further.

Sean Trane Second Osborne album (and certainly an easier one than the previous Shapes) on the Ogun label, in which he was a partaker, with the returning South Africans Harry Miller (cb) and Louis Moholo (drums). Yup, we’re down to the basic sax-led trio, but Osborne chose to play it more or less melodically (everything staying relative with Osborne) throughout the duration of the album. So we’re left with some kind of hard-boppy meets post-bop album that might have seemed a bit rear-guard as the mid-70’s were approaching fast.

On the more adventurous side of the album, we’ve got the Awakening Spirit, where Miller bows his CB over gentle sax wails, before the trio gets carried away in a first burst of energy, then cooling back down to the bowed-bass. The following 10-mins 1st is first opening as a moody ballad, before veering some kind of raga-bop. Opening the flipside Animation is a hard-bop piece that overstays its welcome by half its length, even if Osborne pulls some of his better chops. The short 100 MPH Riff piece could almost qualify as improvised hardcore-bop, and is easily the least accessible track of the album, while the closing 8-mins title track opens of sultry slow sax and bowed-bass, but turns again hard-boppy.

Still a bit surprisingly, like much of its catalogue, the Ogun label reissued this album as a CD, coupled with 77’s Marcel’s Muse as a 2on1 mini-Lp format, and the package is well worth investigated (and invested in) by all fans of the Swinging London-jazz scene. One of Osborne’s most accessible 70’s album, along with the SOS release of the ext year with Skidmore and Surman, but still to be approached with caution for those allergic with the slightest hint of dissonance.

Sean Trane From the London-jazz scene, I think that saxman Mike Osborne was always one of the more “advanced” (read extremist), even if this dimension varied according to the project he was appearing in. But his “solo” or band-leader albums should be approached with some care by most jazz enthusiasts and Shapes is no exception to that rule. The personnel listed on the sleeve shouldn’t be giving you much doubt as to the free or experimental formula used here: Skidmore, Surman (three saxmen), Miller (contrabassist), Freeman (also bass) and the relatively unknown (to me anyway) Moholo on drums. You’d almost expect Elton Dean and Keith Tippett to pop by around, to get a complete picture.

While the CD reissue liner notes mention the rather-extreme label Ogun, I’ve not found on it evidence that it was indeed an Ogun product, but it just sounds like more than a possibility. The 19-mins+ two-part title track is indeed often going overboard in the dissonant area and to be honest, it sometimes gets a bit too screechy for my tastes, and I’m not mentioning the “rhythm” section, which often doesn’t rhythm at all. The two tracks on the flipside don’t show a better aptitude at finding melodies and don’t seem to care to, either. OK, I’ve heard more atonal an album, but let’s face it, even I who like modern challenging music finds that these Shapes are a little too obtuse for my feeble brains. Not exactly my kind of album, but if you’re into the later-Tippett crowd, this should be up your alley…. but I think I’ll move across town.