The number of CDs on sale at the merchandise desk bore testament to the productivity of guitarist George Burt and saxophonist Raymond MacDonald over the past 10 years, although even that catalogue doesn’t tell the whole story of the collaborations between their quintet and luminaries of the jazz and improvised music scenes.

With recording in progress on Tuesday, however, their latest adventure, featuring the American pianist and all too infrequent visitor to Scotland, Marilyn Crispell, shouldn’t slip under the documentation net.

As her opening solo piece illustrated, Crispell is a player of penetrating imagination, able to develop, in this instance, an oblique, folksong-like melody into an exciting, pedal to the metal improvisation that was always entirely under her control. It was a pity that she limited her solo piano contributions to this one number. But then, in fitting with the Burt-MacDonald modus operandi of studied understatement, in both the full group pieces and various vignettes that followed, she was still able to show why such demanding bandleaders as Anthony Braxton have called on her talents down

the years.

Although much of the material was familiar from previous Burt-MacDonald collaborations, including the guitarist’s She’s Gone, with its fragile vocal and forlorn melodica line, and MacDonald’s The Gallery, featuring a nostalgic melody reminiscent of vintage Soft Machine, there was a tentativeness about the performance overall that never quite allowed the ensemble to gel convincingly. Crispell’s sure counter-creativity in a duet with MacDonald’s soprano saxophone and a brief piano, bass and drums trio certainly whetted the appetite, however, should an enterprising promoter bring her back in

her own right.

Burt MacDonald Quintet with Marilyn Crispell

City Halls

Glasgow

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