Minaret Minuets
Here’s a duo record that confounds the lazy — and often mystifying — assumption that the language of duo improvisation is some kind of “conversation”. Sometimes improvisation works most effectively when there is no evidence negotiation or even communication between the two elements. That isn’t quite the case here, but electric guitarist Scott Fields and tenor saxophonist Matthias Schubert have the mutual confidence to pursue independent lines in parallel. Strictly, these are Fields’ lines, since “Dipstick Triptych", “Santa on a Segway” and “Gidget Widget Wacker” are his compositions, but the execution is bipartisan, clever and supremely confident, like two opinionated guys who don’t see the need to wait for the other to pause before they get their two cent’s worth. — The Wire