Turner's Colour Beginnings

Colour Beginnings
Home Made HMR052

Tim Whitehead, as the first musician to become an artist in residence at Tate Britain, stood in front of works by JMW Turner and responded to them with his saxophone. He then turned those spontaneous improvisational reactions into compositions and that’s what you find on this disc.

Do you need to know that? Not necessarily, though it does help to add context to the music, I suppose. What is clear, though, is that this music stands on its own, independently of the paintings.

Whitehead explained in an article in the Guardian: “It was in his watercolour sketches, particularly the Colour Beginnings, that I found the real DNA of his vision: the thumb smudges, the fingers dragged across the sky, the scraping and paint flicking, the wet-on-wet diffusion of pigment that still radiates a newness and, better still, an improvisational edge nearly 200 years on.”

And that certainly helps to elucidate Whitehead’s approach. The opening of this disc, for example, features his saxophone sounding quite vulnerable, the breath slightly tentative and searching, the notes not quite solid, somehow, but airy and unfixed… smudges of notes, perhaps? It soon firms up and is joined by the band. There are Latin rhythms at times, and some great rhythmic drive from all involved. It’s also richly textured music.

There are quite a few solo saxophone sections, but these are mainly group performances with Liam Noble on piano, Milo Fell on drums and either Patrick Bettison on electric or Oli Hayhurst on acoustic bass. Some of it is recorded live at Tate Britain, some in the studio. There are also some fabulous bits where Whitehead leaves the saxophone aside and responds to Turner with his voice. high, worldless  and rapturous.

The saxophonist’s sound has always done it for me – strong, full-bodied, with a rough edge when he chooses – and his improvisational style, rooted in melody, has always floated my boat, too. It is a fascinating album, with fine instrumental interplay and some of the best solo work Whitehead has produced to date.

It’s just quite difficult to express in words – now, if only I could paint a response to the music…