SOLO

Text of article (left) from Jazz UK March/April 1999

The Hession Session - Pete Martin beats the drum for percussionist Paul Hession

Over the years we've become accustomed to 'solo' recordings by pianists and guitarists - plus the occasional saxophonist. The idea of a solo percussion album, however, is still likely to cause a few raised eyebrows. For the drummer and percussionist Paul Hession, however, nothing could be more natural, and he makes the point on his fascinating CD 'Giant Soft Drum Set' (P-Ville 001).

Paul Hession, known throughout Europe as a member of The Siger Band a few years back, and currently acclaimed for his work with the improvising trio Hession/Wilkinson/Fell, approaches the question of solo percussion clearly and thoughtfully. "After all", he says, "all musicians practice a lot by themselves, and of course there's a tradition of solo playing in improvised music". Put like that, the matter seems perfectly straightforward, and in fact the concept is something Paul has been quietly developing for some time. He gave his first solo percussion performance back in 1983, and in 1985 was recorded in London for the National Sound Archive. It was this, he says, which "planted the seed" of the present CD.

In 1986 he had the chance to make a further recording, this time in the interesting acoustic space offered by a piano warehouse in Leeds, and continued to play occasional solo dates. Ten years later, he realised as his 40th birthday approached that he had been playing for 25 years, and made plans to issue a recording which would document his work. The earlier session was still unreleased, and today's technology makes it possible to issue a short run of CDs. So Paul returned to the piano warehouse, and this time recorded some shorter pieces in a different part of the building. The results of both can be heard on the new CD.

After so much experience, how does Paul feel about solo percussion? "Well", he laughs, "there's an element of masochism to it! But what I want is for people to relate to the music that comes through - the actual instruments are only the medium, and the challenge for me is to create interesting music that takes the instruments beyond their normal accompanying role. So I like to think in terms of colours and sound clusters, rather than just rhythmic patterns".

Paul played a solo tour in February for the Arts Council's Improvised Music Touring Scheme, partly to tie in with the new CD, and partly because he wanted to get back to what he calls the"discipline and rigour" of the solo performance.

For he his, like fellow Yorkshire percussionist Tony Oxley, one of these very rare players who is able to cross the divide between conventional jazz and wholly improvised music. "I like time playing, and functioning in a jazz context", he says, "because there's always an improvised element in it. And I also get involved in blurring the boundaries, which I like. But my first love is free improvisation - it's like being given a blank canvas".