Close Calls by Leaflight - Blume, Butcher, Wasserman

John Butcher - saxophones
Ute Wasserman - voice, bird calls
Martin Blume - drums, percussion

This new trio formed in 2024 to play 3 concerts in Germany.
The evening at the Loft in Cologne was recorded and released on FMR records as "Close Calls".

"It is astonishing what high notes John Butcher draws from his soprano, atypical for a saxophone, which correspond in pitch and articulation to the magical voice of Ute Wassermann. This is fed by a stupendous vocal technique of breathing, twittering, hissing and smacking sounds - "amplified" by flutes, funnels, Jew's harp...

If you close your eyes, you can hardly believe the range of sounds the human voice is capable of achieving. Soprano and tenor sax interact in a congenial way, and John Butcher fully lives up to his reputation as one of the most important saxophonists in improvised music: the saxophone as a sound generator with its trombone-like glissandi, with multiphonics, growling, shouting, popping, chirping... miraculously takes up Ute Wassermann's vocal acrobatics and expands them with its own sounds.

And Martin Blume: Rhythmically grounds the dialogue, which at times sounds animalistic, increases the dynamics and in turn provides the impetus for a quieter part. His strength lies in his ability to contribute significantly to the expanded sound of the concert with the use of brushes, wooden blocks on the snare, bells, special mallets... "
Jazz in North Rhine-Westphalia - Heinrich Brinkmöller-Becker

Improviser, Composer, Saxophonist.
Born in Brighton.
Lives in London.

johnbutcher.org.uk