Two Players Finding Common Ground
A kind of jazz-inflected chamber music where calm reflection yields plenty of melody and lively exchanges.
In June 2017, Mark Turner and Ethan Iverson entered the studio together with nothing but a tenor saxophone and a piano. No rhythm section, no safety net—just two musicians who had worked together before and wanted to see what emerged when everything was stripped to its essentials. The result, recorded for ECM, is Temporary Kings, an album that feels less like a jazz record and more like two friends having a sustained musical conversation.
Turner's saxophone and Iverson's piano trade ideas with genuine ease. There's no fighting for space, no ego in the room. Instead you get duets that breathe, that allow silence and space as much as they embrace melody. The Observer's Dave Gelly heard it right: this is chamber music through and through, just with a jazz sensibility running through it. The atmosphere stays calm and reflective throughout—no pyrotechnics, no one trying to prove anything. What you hear instead are melodic lines that develop, harmonic conversations that feel natural, the kind of interplay that only happens when two players genuinely delight in each other's work.
All About Jazz reviewer Mario Calvitti noted the album rewards repeated listening, and that's accurate. Nothing jumps out immediately, which is partly the point. Jazzwise ranked it number thirteen in their Top 20 Jazz Albums of 2018, and NPR included it in Best Music of 2018. For listeners used to more energetic jazz, this might feel understated. For everyone else, it's exactly what it promises to be: two strong players making something intimate and unrushed.
Who's playing
Ethan Iversonpiano
Mark Turnertenor saxophone
Where next?
More by Mark Turner
All 35 albums →
The musicians on this record
Their own records, close in time
