For all its claims to engender individual expression, jazz can often be curiously predictable and formulaic. This can't be said, though, of the music played by Big Satan - a trio of Tim Berne (alto and baritone saxophones), Mark Ducret (guitar) and Tom Rainey (drums) - which eschews all cliches with a glorious rebuttal of jazz orthodoxy.
Their method is a constant three-way interaction that usually begins with patiently assembled abstract shapes that gradually cohere into strangely logical forms; loose themes that give way to bristling densely enmeshed, continuous contributions from the three players. An exhilarating mixture that toyed with chaos, while always maintaining cohesion.
Tim Berne's alto encompasses and expands the radical tradition of that horn while Ducret's marvellous guitar playing took the post-Hendrix, post-Sonny Sharrock legacy as the obvious plane to leap from. Tom Rainey managed to both tie together the disparate strands of sound and throw a bustling, crackling percussion style into the mix.
Their music needed constant attention because it never lacked purpose or passion, so even their one ballad was a labyrinthine affair, a Borges maze with no easy solutions. It was, then, demanding listening, but only if having to listen is considered demanding. All praise to the Improvised Music Company for allowing us the chance to hear.
