Christy Doran's May 95 Sextet: Same But Different

Curse or blessing? A festival handing a musician carte blanche for a one-off adventure sounds liberating, but the allure of artistic freedom can be tempered by pressure: what if the personalities do not gel? What if it bombs?

Christy Doran, the Ireland-born Lucerne-based guitarist, has never been one to dodge a challenge. His entire career has been marked by adventure and innovation. From jazz-rock fusioneers OM in the early '70s to his later groups New Bag, Sound Fountain, and Morpheus Trance, Doran has consistently blurred the lines between jazz, rock and free improvisation.

His experimental folk collaboration with Chinese pipa player Yang Jing on No. 9 (Leo Records, 2013) and the free- soundscaping outing with Japanese pianist Izumi Kimura on Glacial Voyage (Between The Lines, 2025) are just two salient examples from an extensive discography that speak to his willingness to throw caution to the wind.

So when the Schaffhausen Jazz Festival invited Doran to put together a special project for its 1995 edition, he did not hold back, assembling a two-horn, two-drummer electric ensemble with a license to play on the edge. Saxophonist Urs Leimgruber and drummer Fredy Studer—old sparring partners from OM—are joined by trumpeter Herb Robertson, drummer Jim Meneses and electric bassist Kevin Bruce Harris. This 90-minute recording, seeing the light of day for the first time, captures a sextet in blistering form.

Seven compositions range from just under 10 minutes to 23 minutes. The 17-minute "Incognito" is split over two sides of this double vinyl release—a slight inconvenience that the streaming option sidesteps. Initially, comparison to Ornette Coleman's Prime Time groups is tempting—not least for the dual drummers and rhythmic complexities. The strong riffs, Leimgruber's and Robertson's unison motifs and the free-wheeling improvisations also echo Coleman's late '70s ensembles. This is especially true on the free-spirited "Next," which opens the set. Yet Doran's blueprint has more formal cohesion and a steadier rhythmic keel. If anything, Doran's sextet is perhaps closer in spirit to the pulsating jazz-rock of Miles Davis's Jack Johnson (Columbia, 1971).

That Davis soundtrack—to the film about Black boxing world champion Jack Johnson—featured some of the most impassioned soloing of Davis, his guitarist John McLaughlin, and soprano saxophonist Steve Grossman. The same could be said of Doran, Leimgruber and Robertson on Same But Different Leimgruber's soprano spits fire on the epic, groove-centric "Instinct," which Doran single-handedly steers into post-Jimi Hendrix psychedelic overdrive via his pedal board. "New Outline-Shorter Cut," by contrast, is a simmering stew of abstract free improvisations; devoid of conventional soloing, its coiled tensions harbor a peculiar drama of dark hues.

The episodic "Incognito" shifts from jam-band groove to solo free-improvisation and back again. Along the way there are solos of striking contrast. First Robertson, then Leimgruber—sounding like Korean saxophone shaman Kang Tae Hwan—followed by the irrepressible Doran, who delivers a spluttering, flamethrower of a solo. The two drummers have the stage to themselves for four thunderous minutes on the title track before a high-tempo ensemble passage of a knotty weave so typical of Doran. This in turn cedes ground to a visceral, almost animalistic trumpet-and-saxophone exchange. A bass, drum and guitar passage of gentler design ambles towards a fade-out that suggests further twists and turns did not make the final cut.

Debates about vinyl sound quality versus digital compression, or about edited cuts versus the integrity of complete, uninterrupted recordings, will likely abound. But any such arguments should not detract from what is a highly engaging concert performance. The bruising rhythmic intensity and searing solos are the main takeaways, but there is much more under the hood of Doran's May 95 sextet. Same But Different takes its place in Doran's discography as one of his most potent live recordings.

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