Not One Not Two

OPENINGS AND SAMADHIS plays like an audacious, experimental free-jazz album, steeped in observation, concentration, and meditation, which are linked to the free improvisations of Geoff BRIGHT, electroacoustic composer who explores resonance, space, and architecture, showcasing his bass and soprano saxophones, and his vocals in a duet with Hervé PEREZ on alto and soprano saxophones.

Eight tracks are played almost instantaneously, sustained by Buddhist practices and Zen mental states. Eight ways in which they share an enigmatic, sometimes absurd, unimaginable musical world. A singular and captivating music that does not follow any discourse, logical sense, or linear thought.

Just the perfect positioning of two soloists who do not follow a score, but rather live in the present moment, assembling, merging, and transforming the space they create. There is a warm, gentle touch, that is central to such seasoned soloists. Thus, the spirit of their music is inscribed in a peaceful and boundless universe. Everything is permitted in its quintessence, and the result is beautiful.

The Samādhi Of The Expulsion Of Sacred Rage 11:13, where Geoff BRIGHT’s bass saxophone contrasts with Hervé PEREZ’s measured, serene alto saxophone, both deliver a raw power, that is confident, unpredictable and stops time. In The Samādhi Of The Encounter With The Double 8:28, the masterful duo shines lines of absolute purity, their two distinct voices breathe in circumspection. A sinusoidal dance of two instruments, such as on the 7th track, The Samādhi Of Pearl Drops 7:35, a face-to-face encounter of astonishing precision of tone and remarkable richness. A Bodhisattva Silently Cries The Sadness Of The World 8:51, the two improvisers challenge traditional norms. With quality of detail, the saxophones’ sounds show considerable assets. Sensitive movements, breaks, and staccatos tear at the very core of the music, while simultaneously playing with a tone of intimacy. Some harshness, several abrupt turns create intrigue and contrast. Among the eight tracks are also The Mindful Hit Of The Bamboo Stick 9:27 [sung, spoken piece], The Political Positioning Of The Vajra Posture 5:49, The Secret Samādhi 3:45, and The Samādhi Amidst The Waves Of Saṃsāra 5:53.

A performance marked from the very first track by the dynamic depth and the ever changing colours of this recording. This is an album full of bold surprises, subtlety, and lightness, aimed at passionate jazz lovers, and it is sure to live up to your expectations.
This is hot music composed with wild sonorities, freed from tradition, that move to their own beat.

OPENINGS AND SAMADHIS is where you least expect it, disorienting, always breaking the mould in the style of Wayne Shorter and John Coltrane, or Don Cherry and Miles Davis with their trumpets, or even Milford Graves who is another giant as a drummer and percussionist, and one of the pioneers of free jazz. (****) – Marie Mesmer, HIGHLANDS

Have you ever considered free improvisation musicians as part of a sangha? The Sanskrit word sangha means community, and in Buddhist practice, it refers to the collective of seekers who support one another along the path toward awakening. For Geoff Bright and Herve Perez—the duo known as Not One Not Two—the concept goes beyond metaphor. Their collaboration embodies the spirit of taking refuge in the sangha: mutual support, shared awareness and the application of compassion and wisdom to creative challenges. Their music, in turn, becomes a practice of samādhi, a deep concentration that reveals the unity between sound, silence and intention.

Both musicians are committed practitioners of meditation, following in a lineage of spiritually-attuned improvisers that includes John Coltrane, Don Cherry, Wayne Shorter and Milford Graves. In this sense, the Buddhist reflection on form and emptiness feels especially apt. The mantra “whatever is empty, that is form; whatever is form, that is empty” could easily serve as a definition of free improvisation; where the act of creating music arises out of stillness, and sound and silence continually dissolve into one another.

Across eight instantly-composed pieces, Bright (on bass and soprano saxophones, plus occasional vocalizations) and Perez (on alto and soprano) explore that tension between duality and unity. Not One Not Two is not just the name of the duo but a guiding koan, a paradox to inhabit rather than solve.

The opener, “The Samādhi Of The Expulsion Of Sacred Rage,” pairs Bright’s deep, eruptive bass saxophone with Perez’s calm, measured alto, finding equilibrium between force and release. In this sonic dialogue, anger transforms into energy, energy into peace. The two soprano duets—”The Samādhi Of The Encounter With The Double” and “The Samādhi of Pearl Drops”—mirror the record’s philosophical core: two voices merging into one timbral breath, yet maintaining their individual contours. The music is both conversation and contemplation.

Perhaps the most revealing moment arrives in “The Secret Samādhi,” where sound gives way to breath itself. Here, tone dissolves into the bare passage of air through the instrument—a literal enactment of the “gateless gate,” the boundary between playing and being.

Throughout, Bright and Perez approach improvisation not as a display of virtuosity but as a shared meditation on presence. Their music does not seek resolution so much as awareness. Each track unfolds like a sitting session—sometimes turbulent, sometimes serene, always awake.

In the end, the duo reminds us that free improvisation, at its most profound, is a form of refuge: not in doctrine or dogma, but in sound, breath and listening. Openings And Samādis dissolves the line between self and other, between musician and instrument, between noise and silence, offering instead a single, resonant truth: that creation itself is the act of awakening. – Mark Corroto, ALL ABOUT JAZZ https://www.allaboutjazz.com/openings-and-samdhis-not-one-not-two-discus-music

Not One Not Two is Geoff Bright on bass & soprano saxes & voice and Herve Perez on alto & soprano saxes. Although I hadn’t heard of saxist Geoff Bright before now, I do recognize the name of the other saxist here, Herve Perez from his work with the Ron Caines / Martin Archer Axis (mostly on electronics & field recordings) and Inclusion Principle, both of whom record for this, the Discus Music label. Saxophone duets are still relatively rare although a variety of AACM reeds players have done this from time to time. According to the liner notes here, this music was inspired by Buddhist meditation practices. I was unsure of this idea would inform this music but as I listened, I heard a certain centered calming vibe. Piece 1 features bass and alto saxes, both taking their time to explore similar textural territories slowly, thoughtfully, busy at first and then slowing down to a more contemplative vibe. As this piece unfolds, the two saxes speed up and increase the intensity of their dialogue. Mr. Bright adds some odd yet expressive vocals to his duo with Mr. Perez on soprano sax for the second piece, his voice working well with Perez’ sax. Piece 3 is for two soprano saxes and this piece works best as both saxes explore similar textural terrain, exchanging ideas quickly. On the 4th piece (for bass & alto saxes), the duo play slowly, playing around with the same note or range, bending their tones carefully. For piece 6, it sounds as if Mr. Bright is playing a tube, getting those deep notes out on his bass sax while adding some solemn vocal sounds as well at times. The favorite piece here is the last one, “The Samsadi Amidst the ten Waves of Samsara”, which has a mysterious, sensuous, mystical vibes, rather prayer-like. It feels good to calm down the vibe into a more somber state, state which is somewhat meditative. Ommmmmmmmm. Amen. – Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery NYC

In Openings and Samādhis, the latest Discus Music release, sax-players Geoff Bright and Hervé Perez have come together under the moniker Not One Not Two, a name which – along with the album-title – immediately directs us to their Buddhist credentials. Samādhi is a Sanskrit term for ‘oneness’, a state of deep concentration, of meditative absorption. The album takes as its starting-point the similarities between the discipline of meditation and that of free improvisation.

The title of the first track, ‘the samādhi of the expulsion of the sacred rage’, is particularly topical, I thought. You don’t have to be a Buddhist (and, as I feel I should point out, I don’t identify as a Buddhist myself) to appreciate what’s going on here. ‘Sacred rage’ arises not out of a desire for vengeance, but out of a sense of justice and a love of the sacred. The trouble is, its very sacredness can become a justification for holding onto it. So much of what is going on in the world right now, and one’s perceived powerlessness in the face of it, can go round and round in one’s head if one lets it. However, to submit to sacred rage, although it can feel as if it’s having the opposite effect, is to disempower ourselves. We only get to inhabit our heads on a fixed lease: we should make the most of it and not sublet any part of it, let alone allow our enemies control any of what goes on in it. And it’s an idea that, although not discussed explicitly, is very much in vogue, as evidenced by a recent headline – ‘Farage is Living Rent-Free in Starmer’s Head’ – in The New Statesman. To get back to the music though, although the whole thing here is couched in Buddhist terminology, one could rewrite the narrative in purely humanist terms, using everyday language, and it would still make perfect sense: to make this music, one has to clear one’s head of all the things it might otherwise be thinking about, however insistent those thoughts might be. And it might take a hit from bamboo stick (track 2) to shift them.

Buddhism talks of two arrows: the first, of unavoidable suffering, the second, which we inflict on ourselves, of our response to the first. We might blame ourselves, create narratives which only serve to make the situation worse. The ‘encounter with the double’ referenced in the title of the third track is the realisation that one is firing that second arrow at oneself. Rather than being caught up in the cycle of suffering, one seeks to sidestep it and respond instead to the first arrow with kindness. The result here is what was, on first listening, probably my favourite track on the album. Flurries of hyperactive musical thought attempt repeatedly to settle into a feeling of coherence. When they do, what we get is a slightly melancholy, lyrical duet with klezmer-like flattened seconds.

Other tracks deal with other concepts, but, as I’ve already said, you don’t have to be a Buddhist to appreciate what’s going on here. What we’re dealing with is quite simply eminently listenable improvised music! In his notes on the album, Geoff Bright draws parallels between the process of meditation and that of improvisation: as he says, ‘Paradoxically, as improvisers we prepare so very diligently for the moment of improvisatory flight and then, on entering it, immediately jettison all preparation. Why? Because we know that’s precisely where stuff really starts to happen, in that unconditional letting go. It may be very threatening to the everyday ego-self but it’s vital to improvisation.’ Later, he talks of recording the tracks here with Perez and how ‘as in meditation, we stayed with the endeavour of “neither pushing nor pulling” throughout and let everything land just as it was’. Reading this and listening, I was reminded of the Ten Bulls, a series of pictures with commentaries created by the Chinese master Kakuan in the twelfth century. The bull represents truth in action. The series illustrates the steps one takes towards the realisation of one’s true nature. The sixth, ‘Riding the Bull Home’, caught my eye. For flute, read sax:

Mounting the Bull, slowly I return homeward.
The voice of my flute intones through the evening.
Measuring with hand-beats the pulsating harmony, I direct the endless rhythm.
Whoever hears this melody will join me.

Openings and Samādhis is a sustained feat of imagination achieved with minimal resources. It’s fascinating, I think, to explore the background to it, but, whatever one’s philosophical take on it all, it would be an absorbing, meaningful experience even if one discovered it with no titles, artists or notes attached to it! Do have a listen. – Dominic Rivron, INTERNATIONAL TIMES https://internationaltimes.it/riding-the-bull-home/?fbclid=IwY2xjawNy619leHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETA2bmVsM1ZDZFlXbDVpV3dEAR7yKVBIJo8u0mivcU_Kfitd5yJwU3ynKNohXUt1IzQCGV4xRP-mVwbK74mx5Q_aem_svLKDGt5WTgAirfRP-2KNg