A TYPICALLY entertaining set from Holland's Clusone Trio, their hallmarks of impishness, near-hooliganism, and prodigious musical skill all prominent, rounded off Assembly Direct's generally successful and gratifyingly well-attended first major one-day presentation of ''music for the adventurous''.
Jazz's experimental fringe can conjure up images of unrelenting, wilful angst. Saturday, however, opened and closed with some unashamedly tuneful experimentation. The AAB Trio (guitarist Kevin Mackenzie and brothers, saxophonist Phil and drummer Tom Bancroft) provided an attractively languid overture, and the Clusone's charmingly eclectic repertoire produced melodic interludes on a birds theme.
In between, there was a promising new work from Paul Harrison, combining pastoral piano figures and sci-fi synthesiser sounds to often pleasantly eerie effect, and an intriguing set featuring Bill Wells' Octet, a tape recorder, and the Clusone's Michael Moore guesting on clarinet which conjured pastel shades, hip hop rhythms and a certain childlike naivete into something resembling The Ventures meets Rock Bottom-era Robert Wyatt.
Clusone's cellist Ernst Reijseger featured in a three-way exchange with percussionist Steve Noble and Phil Bancroft which see-sawed in an absorbing and highly theatrical fashion, all the more impressive for its ''shake hands and we're on'' nature.
But even that had to concede, in theatre terms, to the much-anticipated guitar/percussion duet between Derek Bailey and Han Bennink, the former's calm mien masking an industrially rugged output, while Bennink rampaged in a manner bears with sore heads might frown upon, although migrained grizzlies might not smile quite so often.
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