SET (2014)

Gary Carpenter's output spans everything from atonal treatments of 12-bar blues to the syrupy-sinister orchestral arrangements for The Wicker Man; so he is perhaps uniquely placed to find the common ground between Coleman Hawkins and Alban Berg. Carpenter's BBC commission, SET, was a unique and extremely cool double concerto in which jazz drummer Martin France laid down the pulse and saxophonist Iain Ballamy improvised freely over the top. The title is a play on words referring both to the modernist tone-row and a jazz musician's list of standards; and it began as it meant to go on, lining up a rigid 12-note sequence and then swinging it until the chains went slack

Nali’s other task was to unveil to the world Gary Carpenter’s SET, with Iain Ballamy the saxophone soloist and Martin France on drumkit. As an integration of two styles – improvisatory jazz and cerebral European atonalism – it was strikingly refreshing, and more so when the jazz won out. The moody solo of its second number, the ghost of Edmundo Ros in the third, and the laid-back love song of its fourth (with tinkly piano meanderings from Jonathan Scott), were great fun.