The two most recent albums to feature Alan Skidmore have been garnering excellent international reviews. The double CD of Skid’s quartet live in Berlin and at the Boxford Fleece have been praised in the UK and the USA.

 

 

JAZZ JOURNAL  

  

JAZZWISE MAGAZINE

While the John Coltrane Tribute at the Café Oto in 2017 has also attracted rave reviews especially in America.

 

This journal has an extended review which you can read here – scroll down to the fourth item. But here’s a flavour:

For the third set, Dunmall’s Sun Ship Quartet is joined by British tenor titan Alan Skidmore. Like Dunmall, Skidmore is a self-professed Coltrane acolyte and has delved deeply into Coltrane’s playing and compositions through his career. Skidmore and Dunmall played together in the group Tenor Tonic in the mid-80s but collaborated only rarely since then so this meet-up is particularly intriguing. With three reed players, things could easily become an impenetrable mess, but the group manages to avoid that. The five launch off on “Attaining,” with one horn intoning the plaintive theme over Bianco and Brice’s slow, loose simmer. The music wells as the full ensemble comes in to restate the theme, then opens up into extended solos for each of the horn players. Each attacks their explication with lithe, freely-melodic vitality, with Dunmall’s insistent stabbing take particularly arresting. The final Sun Ship tune, “Ascent,” is one of the strongest of the recording, starting with a pliantly probing bass solo which segues into a series of particularly searing solos by the reed players. Skidmore kicks things off with molten torrents that spill across the framework of the theme with thoughtful intensity. Dunmall switches to soprano and weaves a deconstruction of “My Favorite Things” into his labyrinthine take. Cottle wraps things up with incendiary passion, digging in to the tune with overblown multiphonics and cascading flurries. The three come together for a brief, three-way joust at the end that closes things with ardent abandon.

This blog was equally impressed by the recording of the concert. Again the whole piece is here but this will give you a taste of the reviewer’s opinion.

This album is like a bridge between traditions and innovations, modal and modern jazz, nervous and complicated bebop, aggressive hard bop, stable and calm cool jazz or frantic, wild, frustrating, aggressive and passionate free improvisations. Rich, multi-layered, colorful and universal musical pattern is created. It’s contained with dozens of textures, sounds, timbres, all kinds of rhythms, melodies, exotic or rare ways of playing, suggestive instrumentation and evocative musical language. The changes of moods and playing manners are just marvelous – it turns the music into dynamic, tremendous and sparkling set of compositions. “Paul Dunmall Sun Ship Quartet” is playing on every composition with famous jazz masters. Various combos are formed to create a different sound and mood. The last composition “Ascension” joins all musicians at one scene for free, passionate and bright improvisation. …

Julie Kjaer shows her best abilities of improvising and makes an impact on the whole sound. The saxophonists Paul Dunmall, Howard Cottle and Alan Skidmore create the basic of the melodic section. Wild, frantic, thrilling, scratching, furious, scandalous and aggressive solos meet the soft and gentle lyrical pieces, passionate and expressive melodies, trendy and fabulous riffs, luminous, growling and radiant bursts of energy or – romantic, dreamy, cool and simply beautiful excerpts. The saxophones dictate the mood and sound of whole album. It gives the main tune to the melody line also. The reeds is the source of energy, crazy ideas, expressive and luminous mood, driving and inspiring style and wild bursts.

In his review Bruce Lee Gallanter of the Downtown Music Gallery in New York said this of the Café Oto CDs.

 

On the second disc, the Sun Ship Quartet is joined by Alan Skidmore, now with three tenor saxists, the expanded group bringing the energy to boiling point. Drummer, Tony Bianco, pulls off a few great solos sounding little Elvin Jones on swirling mallets. The three sax quintet, sound astonishing on two more songs from “Sun Ship”, burning, erupting, exploding in Nirvana. The final piece is an extraordinary version of Coltrane’s classic “Ascension”, the original version which featured a half dozen extra saxists. It is the crowning way to bring this disc to an incredible conclusion, all three saxists getting a chance to stretch out, with the first up trio added for good measure, several layers of spirits, cosmic currents all rising together. It is one of the first days of Spring today (4/24/19) and the Sun and spiritual music sound perfect together after a long, cold, dismal at times winter. A toast to this mighty fine two CD set, no doubt one of this years best efforts!

And in the UK the Jazzwise  issue for June carries this glowing 4 star review: