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CD Review - Jazzwise Magazine - May 2010
Rob Hall & Chick Lyall - Rhyme or Reason ***
FMR CD281-0909 | Rob Hall (ts, ss, sopranino sax, cl) and Chick Lyall (p)
Let’s begin with the obvious and oft-stated: jazz north of the border is in rude good health,
as this second FMR collaboration from Scotland based duo Rob Hall and Chick Lyall demonstrates.
This series of fluently intimate dialogues between piano and reeds takes up where the pair’s first CD,
The Beaten Path, left off. In terms of influences, the 13 original compositions move from jazz
(the post bop of ‘The Maze’) to folk-traditional (breathe the immemorial Caledonian air on the
lovely, gently jigging ‘Rub of the Green’) to, perhaps most imposingly,
classical (‘Elegy’ and ‘Scherzo’ are movements from Hall’s ‘Sonata for Clarinet and Piano’).
Strong throughout on atmosphere (the windingly hypnotic ‘Pied Piper’),
Lyall and Hall are careful to counterbalance the demands of composition and improvisation throughout,
spontaneous thoughts constantly pulling predetermined structures in fresh, new directions to provide a
winning demonstration of the duo’s great empathy as performers (the stirringly shape-shifting ‘Michaelmas’
and the four freely improvised ‘Variant’ interludes). I’m looking forward to their third collaboration already.
www.jazzwisemagazine.com
Robert Shore
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SOUND FESTIVAL 2008 - ABERDEEN
Rob Hall & Chick Lyall
31 Oct Cowdray Hall, Aberdeen
The Lunch Break series along with sound and its Saxfest
were all involved in bringing top flight duo Rob Hall
(saxophones & clarinet) and Chick Lyall (piano & laptop/electronics) to Aberdeen.
A small but very appreciative audience attended Friday's lunchtime concert
that included two world premieres along with new pieces from their latest CD and
three improvisations, two of those featuring laptop electronics.
Carousel by Rob Hall and the slow middle section of Three Movements for Sopranino
Sax by Chick Lyall both featured the transparent smooth-soaring sounds of that rarer
member of the sax family. Both, though not jazz in the strict sense of the term, had
definite jazz-inspired influences; fresh sounding and wonderfully fluent in the case
of Carousel, more pensive and with a midnight bluesy feel in Chick Lyall's piece. Its
ambience reminded me just a little of the mood conjured up by Copland's Quiet City.
Beaten Path also by Chick Lyall for clarinet and piano is the title of their new CD. It
was a gentle pastoral with an improvisatory-sounding central section for piano. Across The
Sound by Rob Hall in which he used the tenor sax started gently and thoughtfully before its
gathering rhythmic intensity picked up the audience and pulled them along with the music.
The first improvisation had a kind of tropical jungle backing with bird-like sounds and a
rattle of castanets that could have been some exotic creature. Clarinet and piano added their
vibrant playing to the mix. The secret of really good improvisation is that it should not really
sound improvised at all and in their third such piece without electronics the duo knocked the
music back and forth like a couple of champion table tennis players and they never missed the
ball. It was a delight to watch and to listen to. I have been feeling a bit frazzled this week
especially after trying to get parked near the Cowdray Hall on a busy Friday but I found Rob Hall
and Chick Lyall's performance both relaxing and refreshing. I would recommend their music as a
healing influence for a stressed out world.
Alan Cooper
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CD
REVIEW Musician Magazine SPRING 06
Rob Hall & Chick Lyall The Beaten Path (FMR CD170-CO505)
[Musician, Spring 2006]
Scottish duo saxophonist Rob Hall and pianist Chick
Lyall merge classical, jazz and Celtic flavours to create
a work of depth and imagination consisting of self-penned
instrumentals. The pair sprinkle delightful pinches
of hot spice across every cut and surprise with twists
of improvisational wizardry. The warm chordal opener
Devil’s Advocate is instantly followed by the
energetic Late, which flows into the fluid arpeggios
of Campsie Falls. Lovely stuff.
Keith Ames
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CD
REVIEW Jazzwise DEC 05
Rob Hall & Chick Lyall The Beaten Path (FMR CD170-CO505)
[Jazzwise, Dec
2005] ***
Saxophonist Rob Hall has carved out a notable niche
in both performance and education since moving to Scotland
a few years back, while pianist Chick Lyall has been
a creative force on the Scottish jazz scene since the
late 1980s. This refined duo outing reflects the work
they have been doing together over the past couple of
years, and both players contributed compositions to
the session, drawing on influences from their work in
classical and – to a lesser extent – Celtic
music contexts as well as jazz. The result is a series
of beautifully constructed and cleanly articulated pieces
that are notably atmospheric and evocative, to the point
of verging on being classed as tone poems at times.
These formal compositions are linked by occasional brief
freely improvised interludes. Hall’s use of four
different saxophones adds variety to the sonic palette,
and both players are able to find their space in the
music with impeccable taste and discrimination.
Kenny
Mathieson
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