Zone calls

Sean Coffin visited Smiths to play with the locals.  He's touring with the band name Zoning laws referring to his improvisation method, Flow zoning, that he's writing up into a PhD.  I found it a fascinating contrast after a similar lineup the previous night under John Mackay, another sax star although quite different in style.  Not sure I can express the differences too well, but John seemed more fluid, fast and mellifluous while Sean was loud, powerful and choppy.  Both were impressive performers at a very high level but obviously style-wise diverse.  I asked Sean about his method.  If I got it right, it's seven x five note cells that can be applied variously to chords and tonalities and made more complex and varied with a range of technical modifications and embellishments.  Best to await his PhD release, but I enjoyed the determined, abrasive, potent soloing.  The band played just 7 tunes, so were generous with improvs all round.  The tunes were all from the standards repertoire, but a note suggested his technique lead to compositions, so I guess that complexity is held for his regular band.  But this local pickup band was no slouch.  Interestingly, I overheard one person suggesting that Sean should tour with this band.  Certainly they were impressive.  Nick McBride was long known to Sean; Chris Pound and Lachlan Coventry were more recent contacts.  They all blew a storm and all took significant, extensive solo spots and defined their time with aplomb and improvisational interest.  I particularly followed Chris, of course, and was floored by a few particularly expansive solos.  He can play changes neatly and with interest and variation but those solos often reach to the heights, using big intervals and chordal-like hand shapes and one just stopped me with a quick descending harmonic pattern to die for.  Nick and Lachlan were pretty good too(!)  So was Sean, as I said.  So I enjoyed this gig.  The 7 tunes that spanned the two sets were Sonnymoon for 2, Stablemates, Darn that dream, Milestones (old), Alone together, Invitation and You don't know what love is.  So some personal, less common choices, but all in the fake books.  Sean ended by commenting on how jazz can be created with people who just meet.  I doubt he's ever played with this combination but you wouldn't know.  Just another fabulous intellectual jazz treat.

Sean Coffin (tenor) led Zoning Laws standards ensemble at Smiths with Lachlan Coventry (guitar), Chris Pound (bass) and Nick McBride (drums).