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The collaboration between Richard Fairhurst and John Taylor began at the Steinway Festival in 2010, where the two musicians first played together. When asked which piano player he would most like to work with, Fairhurst immediately suggested Taylor as a musician with 'a touch and sound that really spoke to me'. They began by exploring the music of Bill Evans, keen that the project should avoid standards, explore harmony and understatement but also feel more contemporary. Approaching the Evans pieces from an original angle, both players felt an immediate musical connection, using the music as a springboard for their own individual approaches and perspectives. Fairhurst says: 'We experimented with rhythmic ideas, texture and space. Each performance involved extensive rehearsal, and as the approach to the music developed, it began to feel as if this should become a less sporadic and more enduring project'. The repertoire includes original material and a Bill Evans suite that looks back to the beginnings of the project. It also includes pieces from two crucial and sadly missed figures of the British jazz scene - Pete Saberton and Kenny Wheeler. Although Duets was recorded before Wheeler's death, it has inevitably assumed a feeling of warm tribute to these great musicians. Wheeler's Sly Eyes contains many of his characteristic twists and turns, whilst also containing an element of humour. Pete Saberton's tunes, tricky and unpredictable, are particularly difficult to deliver in this more spacious style. Both musicians felt very aware of the dangers of overcrowding the music - with two pianos, the potential for a cascade of notes is very real. Yet the music on Duets has a reflective quality, and a real feeling of space. Fairhurst and Taylor have been careful not to make their improvising too dense, in order to achieve what Fairhurst describes as a 'considered elegance'. The overall aim was to create a blend, with the effect of one instrument playing rather than two.

Track Listing

Press Quotes

'The whole set is remarkable for the amount of light and space these virtuosi are careful to include in their joint performance'

     —Dave Gelly, The Observer

'...thoughtful, explorative, revelatory, mischievous...'

     —Cormac Larkin, Irish Times

'An empathic piano-duo album... superb improvisation'

     —John Fordham, The Guardian

'...these duets are an unalloyed delight.'

     —Stephen Graham, Marlbank

'...an intelligent, seriously considered project...'

     —Selwyn Harris, Jazzwise