Greg Malcolm’s latest release, according to the liner notes at least, takes its conceptual starting point to be “noise versions of Steve Lacy tunes”. “Leather and Lacy” is a live recording from the 2006 Wellington Jazz Festival. Malcolm plays three guitars simultaneously, letting each play off the others, creating something that is at once delicate, rhythmic and textured. The result is a late night improv vibe. While Malcolm’s three guitars don’t automatically make him more interesting than the seemingly never-ending deluge of post-Fahey solo guitar players, their presence certainly makes his playing more dynamic. “Prayer” begins the album on an eerie note, with the main melodic refrain emerging out of grainy ambient noise, only to be submerged back into a cacophony of scrapes and drones at the end of the track. Even at his most indebted to Fahey & co, as on “The Crust” - a jaunty bluegrass number - Malcom’s ability to use one of his guitars for rhythm, and his clear interest in noise, means that when the song’s main refrain fades back the result is closer to The Dead C than John Fahey or Jack Rose.

Hovering over this release is the question of its relation to jazz. If anything an album like “Leather and Lacy” serves as a reminder of how jazz’s improvisatory practice continues to inform experimental music, and helps keep open the dialogue between recent experimental music and free jazz. 8/10 -- Tim Gentles (11 March, 2009)