ALEXANDER SCHLIPPENBACH & CARLOS BECHEGAS – Open Speech – CD – FORWARD.REC03

Like his compatriots Telectu – Jorge Lima Barreto and Vitor Rua – whose playing partners over recent years have included major figures such as Sunny Murray, Chris Cutler, Eddie Prévost and Jac Berrocal, Portuguese flautist Carlos Bechegas likes to measure himself against established heavyweights: he inaugurated his own Forward.Rec label in 2001 with a storming set of duos with bassist Peter Kowald (Open Secrets), following it up with Right Off (2002, Numérica), which teamed him up with guitarist Derek Bailey in a thrilling if a little electronics-heavy (on the part of the flautist) session. On Open Speech he’s partnered by the founder of the mythic Globe Unity Orchestra, pianist Alex Schlippenbach – looks like we’ve lost a “von” somewhere along the way – in a set of five pieces, each entitled “Speech”, recorded by Jean-Marc Foussat at the Jazz à Luz festival in the French Basque country on July 12th 2003. It’s a splendid match, pitting Bechegas’ awesome classical technique (I’m still reeling from “Octave Ligatto”, from his old Leo Lab outing, also reissued as the opening cut on 1998’s Flute Landscapes on AudEo) against Schlippenbach’s ever exquisite ear for pitch.

Dan Warburton / Paris Transatlantic Magazine