NUMERO D'VOL

Hugh Hopper is most known as the bassist in Soft Machine and the invention of fuzz bass. But his love was jazz. A dedication that also included Soft Machine. Hugh Hopper has also released a lot of solo albums too. Most of them, if not all of them, is anything but easy listening and a massive challenge for a newbie in jazz like myself.

You could be mistaken to believe that a Hugh Hopper solo album would focus on his bass and in particular; his fuzz bass. In the case of this album, that's wrong. The focus on this album is Simon Picard's saxophone. Yes, Hugh Hopper is there, but not the focus of this album.

This album starts brightly with the melodic title track. A very good title track where the saxophone and bass is improvising over a theme. From there on, the album take a sharp left turn into avant-garde and Canterbury land. Think Soft Machine, think avant-garde jazz. There are still some good jazz inbetween some stuff I can hardly label as anything but mediocre. I feel a bit lost inbetween all this and I simply does not get it.

The title track, the good saxophone and Hugh Hopper's as always excellent playing is the saving grace on this album. I am really not keen on this album, but still awards it three stars.

3 stars (barely)

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