Emma Rawicz / Gwilym Simcock

“Big Visit”

(ACT Music + Vision ACT 8014 – 2)

Emma Rawicz – tenor & soprano saxophones, Gwilym Simcock – piano

“Big Visit” brings together two British musicians signed to the prestigious German record label ACT, founded by producer and entrepreneur Siggi Loch.

Pianist Gwilym Simcock, now in his early forties and saxophonist Emma Rawicz, still in her early twenties may be from different jazz generations but are united by their British jazz heritage, their shared influences including the music of Kenny Wheeler, John Taylor and Norma Winstone. Other shared sources of inspiration include Keith Jarrett, Jan Garbarek and Ralph Towner.

Both Simcock and Rawicz were considered ‘rising stars’ in the UK when they were snapped up by ACT. Simcock has enjoyed a long and fruitful association with the label, with whom he has released the solo piano albums “ Good Days at Schloss Elmau” (2011) and “Near and Now” (2018)  plus the duo recording “Reverie at Schloss Elmau” (2014), a collaboration with the Russian born bassist Yuri Goloubev, who has also been a member of Simcock’s trio with drummer James Maddren. This line up recorded “Blues Vignette” (2009) for the UK label Basho Records.

Simcock’s output for ACT also includes “Instrumation” (2014), a collaboration with Goloubev, drummer Martin France and the City of London Sinfonia. He has always been a musician with a foot in both the jazz and classical camps and this recording brings both aspects of his work together.

Simcock has recorded for ACT with Lighthouse Trio, a UK based ensemble also featuring Tim Garland (reeds) and the Israeli born drummer / percussionist Asaf Sirkis.

In addition to his works as a leader or co-leader Simcock has also been a prolific sideman, most notably touring and recording with the great American guitarist and composer Pat Metheny.

He was also part of the Anglo-American ‘supergroup’ The Impossible Gentlemen, whose members included fellow Brit Mike Walker on guitar plus the American rhythm team of Adam Nussbaum at the drums and Steve Swallow (later Steve Rodby) on bass. The majority of the group’s compositions were by Simcock and Walker, making them effectively the leaders. A hugely popular live attraction the group recorded three hugely successful albums for Basho between 2011 and 2016, at which point Mr. Metheny came calling.

Numerous recordings and live performances featuring Simcock in a variety of musical configurations can be found elsewhere on The Jazzmann.

In 2021 saxophonist Emma Rawicz was one of the winners of a Drake YolanDa Award and in 2022 made a big impression with her self released debut album “Incantation”. A BBC Young Jazz Musician of the Year finalist her star continued to rise and after a series of successful live performances, including several at the UK’s leading jazz festivals, she was signed to ACT for the release of her second album “Chroma” (2023), recorded with an all British based group featuring guitarist Ant Law, pianist Ivo Neame, bassist Conor Chaplin, drummer Asaf Sirkis and vocalist Immy Churchill. I saw this line up (minus Churchill) give an excellent performance at a Shrewsbury Jazz Network event in June 2023. The same year saw her guesting with bassist and composer Gary Brunton at Brecon jazz Festival.

2024 saw Rawicz winning the Parliamentary Jazz Award for ‘Best Instrumentalist’ (she had also been voted ‘Best Newcomer’ in 2022) and also leading a stellar international quintet featuring trumpeter Laura Jurd, pianist Jason Rebello, bassist Conor Chaplin and former Phronesis drummer Anton Eger at Kings Place as part of the EFG London Jazz Festival. Following on from the shows I saw in Shrewsbury and Brecon it confirmed Rawicz’s status as a brilliant live performer. Reviews of both of Rawicz’s albums plus the three live shows that I have alluded to can be found elsewhere on the Jazzmann.

Turning now to “Big Visit”, which is the subject of a rather late review following its release in March 2025. My thanks to Matt Fripp of the Jazzfuel organisation for forwarding a copy to me for review purposes. As a fan of both artists it was an album that I was delighted to receive.

“Big Visit” is a release that is a worthy addition to ACT’s impressive catalogue of great duo recordings. “Reverie at Schloss Elmau”, Simcock’s 2014 release with Yuri Goloubev was the first in ACT’s “Duo Art”  series of recordings, some of the other combinations including bassists Lars Danielsson and pianist Leszek Mozdzer, pianist Michael Wollny and saxophonist Marius Neset, and most poignantly, trombonist Nils Landgren and the late pianist Esbjorn Svensson, a session that had actually been recorded back in 1999.

Simcock and Rawicz first played together in 2023 when Rawicz was asked to perform at a concert at London’s Royal Academy of Music celebrating Simcock’s 40th birthday.  Simcock is Professor of Jazz Piano at the RAM and Rawicz studied there, and also at the Guildhall. She was approached to take part in the concert by Nick Smart, Head of Jazz at RAM and she and Simcock quickly struck up an instinctive musical rapport, taking the decision to continue working as a duo, something positively encouraged by ACT.

Simcock is based in Berlin and the fact that both musicians are signed to ACT led to a number of concerts in Germany, where Rawicz has also acquired her own following. The success of these live shows led to the duo making the decision to into the recording studio sooner rather than later.

The resultant album was actually recorded in England at engineer Curtis Schwartz’s studio in Sussex. Documented over the course of two days at the end of July 2024 the album includes two compositions each from Simcock and Rawicz, all specifically written for this project, plus arrangements of the Stevie Wonder song “Visions” and the jazz standard “You’ve Changed”, written by Carl Fischer.

The album commences with Simcock’s composition “His Great Adventure”, a piece dedicated to the fearlessness of Simcock’s young son. Selected as the opener for its joyousness it exhibits something of a Keith Jarrett influence and features Rawicz on tenor saxophone. A freely flowing introduction establishes the duo’s easy and instinctive rapport, you can almost hear them listening to each other. As she has already demonstrated on her two albums as a leader Rawicz plays with an astonishing fluency and maturity for such a young musician, and particularly one who took up the saxophone comparatively late. In addition to his classically honed lightness of touch with regard to melody Simcock can also be a phenomenally rhythmic and powerful player, something that he demonstrates during a lengthy solo piano episode here. His vivacity is matched by Rawicz as she returns to take flight on tenor. An excellent and invigorating start.

Rawicz switches to soprano for her own composition “The Shape of a New Sun”, the title taken from  a quote from the novel ‘Half of a Yellow Sun’ by the Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Rawicz is a self acknowledged ‘bookworm’). It’s an elegant piece that demonstrates both her gift for melody and her maturity as a composer. Piano and soprano sax almost seem to work as one, with Rawicz subtly probing above Simcock’s rich but understated pianistic undertow. There’s an air of wistfulness and optimism about the music, which again includes a solo piano episode from Simcock that partly releases him from his rhythmic duties.

Also by Rawicz “The Drumbledrone” takes its title for a dialect word for bumblebee from the composer’s native Devon. It sees Rawicz returning to tenor while Simcock’s piano seems to simulate the titular insect moving from flower to flower. There’s playfulness tinged with nostalgia in a performance that sees the saxophonist adopting a suitably buzzy sound on tenor. There’s an extended passage of solo piano before the composer returns on tenor.

Simcock takes up the compositional reins again on “Optimum Friction”, with Rawicz reverting back to soprano. The piece takes its inspiration from the 1997 duo recording “1 + 1” by pianist Herbie Hancock and saxophonist Wayne Shorter. It’s an intensely rhythmic performance from the pianist and composer, who told Peter Quinn in an interview for Jazzwise Magazine;
“I love the idea of trying to be the whole rhythm section and that responsibility you have. It’s a challenge if you’re playing for ten minutes and you want to try and get every single note in the grid. That idea of really doubling down and trying to have this kind of bulletproof feel for the music is a constant that I’m aspiring to”.
The piece may be a tour de force for Simcock, but it’s no less so for Rawicz, whose soprano sax dances lightly and joyously around the rhythmic ferment generated by the pianist in a manner that is genuinely exhilarating.

Stevie Wonder’s “Visions”, a song from the 1973 album “Innervisions” is a piece that Simcock first performed as a student. “That tune has always stuck in my head”, he explains. For this interpretation Simcock also draws on the influence of the French composer Olivier Messiaen, also an inspirational figure for many jazz musicians. For all its sophistication it’s still a tender ballad performance with Rawicz giving the song an emotive reading on tenor, eventually stretching out more expansively, encouraged by Simcock’s rhythmic prompting. The solo piano section is thoughtful and reflective, qualities that the returning Rawicz also brings to the music.

Finally we hear a second ballad, “You’ve Changed”, a jazz standard composed by Carl Fischer.  The tune was played without prior rehearsal at the end of the recording session, although it’s a piece both musicians were previously familiar with and had played as students. To Rawicz it represents something of a musical ‘thank you’ to her former tutor Pete Churchill at the RAM. Ushered by tenor sax, to which Simcock instinctively responds, it’s a delightfully intimate duo performance that has been selected by many other commentators as an album highlight. With the emphasis on melody and beauty it’s less complex than the rest of the album and represents an effective contrast,  its ‘old school’ virtues making it the perfect piece to finish on.

In their liner notes the duo comment “the joy inherent in making music is central to our approach and our recording date was filled with creativity and freedom. Indeed plenty more music was recorded, and we hope to present this to you in the future”.

One of those pieces will be “Big Visit” itself, which didn’t make the final cut but was still used as the album title as it “represents the freewheeling abandon we experienced while recording”.

They also comment;
“Creating and developing this music together has been an exciting and fulfilling process, drawing upon a shared love of the many influences that have shaped both of our musical lives, while also exploring new and different spices for each of us. There’s no better way to begin and develop a musical relationship than in a duo setting, and you can hear this connection blossoming in real time”.

As a listener one can only concur with the duo’s assessment of their own achievements. “Big Visit” is a genuinely impressive piece of work, intimate but ambitious and featuring intelligent original writing and inventive arrangements alongside some brilliant playing.

Rawicz and Simcock have also commented that they want their partnership to be “long lasting and fruitful”. Let’s hope that means some British concert performances and the release of that second album.

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