The background to saxophonist Phil Bancroft’s solo improvised suite, Testimony, is covered fully in Bruce Lindsay’s excellent feature (link below). It’s worth quickly restating however that, when Bancroft decided to investigate the acoustics of the Ringo barn on his East Lothian smallholding, he had no plans to record, let alone release, an album as such.
This reviewer, for one, is glad that he has. Bancroft has long been highly regarded as an improviser with an appealingly individual style. Never one to display his formidable technique just to impress, he creates lines and develops ideas that convey how he is feeling in the moment, often with a certain vulnerability.
The opening movement here is haunting in its simplicity. A repeated single noted “cry” moves into a series of linear variations and picks up confident momentum that together suggest a conversation with the room’s acoustics.
Elsewhere over the nine movements Bancroft’s fluency takes him into lines of Bach-like logic (he has a penchant for Bach’s cello suites) and melodies that sound slightly familiar to begin with until you realise it’s not actually a jazz standard but it could become one! “Part 5” sounds like something that could be worked up into band number, for Bancroft’s Beautiful Storm trio or for the quartet he led with bassist Reid Anderson, drummer Thomas Strønen and guitarist Mike Walker.
Solo saxophone can make for demanding listening but Bancroft keeps the listener involved through a variety of approaches – now percussive, now gently probing, now slightly harsh and emotionally on edge – and his beautiful tone production. For instant compositions, pieces such as “Part 8” are beautifully realised. As a whole Testimony might not be an instant favourite but it certainly repays repeated visits.
