I first came across flautist Ernie Mansfield when he sent me the Mormos albums to review, a group he was a member of when they were active in France in the early Seventies (check them out, great band), and he has now kindly sent me some more of his albums to review. ‘Windsailor’ was originally released in 1983 on the Catero Records label, reissued in 2000, and now available digitally on his own Bandcamp site. On this instrumental jazz album he was joined by Marty Allen (piano, keyboards), Bob Boss (guitars), Alex Baum (acoustic & electric bass), Glenn Cronkhite (drums and percussion),with Doug Harman also providing cello on two numbers. I have long felt that the flute is a much-under-utilised instrument in popular music, and although there are some prog bands who are renowned for using it, there are even fewer within jazz, and I am having difficulties of thinking of any where it is the lead instrument.
I confess I am something of a Tull freak, spending far too much money over the years on rare editions and seeing them play, and while Anderson may have lost much of his vocal talent there is no doubt he is still very much a force to be reckoned with when playing the flute. However, he always attacks the instrument, snarling and providing weird vocal sounds while he drives it through the amplification, making it very much a rock instrument to be reckoned with, but that is definitely not Ernie’s style. Yes, he can provide blistering runs and take his flute in a somewhat similar direction (“Dance of the Midnight Air”), he is mostly about beauty and restraint, demonstrating his skills and allowing us to understand just how much can be achieved with this instrument, yet always highly melodic with rippling notes which sound as if they are joined on an invisible chain, flawless and bright. Everyone in the band has plenty of room to shine, and there are times when Ernie takes a break to allow the others to share the spotlight, yet it is when he is there that the music really takes flight.
This is jazz which has been rehearsed and scored, the result being music which has been carefully thought through as opposed to reactive (although there is very much a place for that as well), and more than 40 years after it was originally released still feels very modern yet rooted in the Seventies. This is a delightful album, and one which I have thoroughly enjoyed.
Rating: 8/10