John Surman and Jack DeJohnette first played together in London in 1968, but The Amazing Adventures of Simon Simon, recorded in 1981, was their first duo album. Its nine numbered parts, eight originals and a traditional English tune, run as one sequence for reeds, synthesizer and percussion. It opened an occasional series of duo records for ECM, which later brought Invisible Nature and Free and Equal.
Surman plays soprano and baritone saxophones, bass clarinet and synthesizer. DeJohnette plays drums and congas, and adds electric piano. The session took place in January 1981 at Talent Studio in Oslo, with Jan Erik Kongshaug engineering and Manfred Eicher producing, and the album came out that October. Surman wrote most of the material. Three parts are joint compositions with DeJohnette, and Kentish Hunting (Lady Margaret's Air) is a traditional English tune in Surman's arrangement.
The opening Nestor's Saga takes its time. For almost eight minutes Surman's bass clarinet circles a sparse electronic sequence, until he switches to soprano and DeJohnette's percussion breaks in. In Phoenix and the Fire the rubato soprano rides a heavy pulse and climbs to a crescendo built on circular breathing. Fide et Amore (By Faith and Love) works as a ballad, with Surman's baritone set against DeJohnette's dusky electric piano. Between these longer pieces, short episodes such as Merry Pranks and the folk tune lighten the mood.
The record won Record of the Year in the Jazz Forum readers' poll. DownBeat gave it five stars, calling it an "unrestrained delight" that "shatters through several stylistic barriers in the most swingful of fashions". Reviewing the 2019 reissue in Jazz Journal, Fred Grand called it "a keystone in Surman's rich discography". He heard music that looks back to the ferment of the 1970s and ahead to the folk-inflected chamber style later linked with ECM. In his view the later duo albums do not quite match its urgency. Tyran Grillo of ECM Reviews found that it has aged well and suggests it as the place to start with the duo.
This CD is the 2019 Touchstones reissue of ECM 1193, first released in 1981. It appeared in the group of landmark recordings ECM reissued in the series for its 50th anniversary.
