The duo setting can be like a breath of fresh air, particularly for musicians who normally deal with the complexity and intricacy of much larger ventures. Saxophonist Emma Rawicz, whose star has been rising all over Europe since she joined the ACT label last year, runs and directs her own big band. Pianist Gwilym Simcock, whose ACT album “Good Days At Schloss Elmau” was nominated for the Mercury Prize, and has toured the world with Pat Metheny, will at any one time be working on a whole array of orchestral composition commissions.

So, when both these musicians approach this new duo project, they do so in an energised and enthusiastic spirit: “It’s a really joyful experience and a positive environment, says Simcock, who adds: “we just get on so well, her writing is so advanced, her attention to detail extraordinary.” Simcock says he not only appreciates Emma Rawicz’s technical mastery of the instrument, particularly her ease in the upper registers, there are musical consequences too: “With her, the ideas just flow from person to instrument, and that’s the ideal we all aspire to.”

The respect is mutual. “I was already a fan,” remembers Emma Rawicz, “so playing in a duo really is a dream come true for me.” Despite coming from different musical generations, there are strong affinities in their musical pasts: Simcock and Rawicz even studied with some of the same teachers at the same institutions.

“That means we have some very similar reference points in our musical make up,” says Rawicz. “Keith Jarrett, Jan Garbarek, Ralph Towner, as well as the whole folk-inflected lineage of British jazz lineage through John Taylor, Kenny Wheeler and Norma Winstone. All of that had a big impact.” And both concur that the act of bringing improvisation into the duo of a melody instrument and piano – a setting with classical music associations – reconnects them with the classical music which runs deep in both of their pasts.

The original opportunity for the two to meet properly for the first time came at a concert in February 2023 at the Royal Academy of Music, a belated celebration of Simcock’s 40 th birthday, for which he had been commissioned to write new music. Rawicz’s memories are of first being excited that she had been picked to play on such a special project, but then of being mesmerized by Gwilym’s astonishing directive energy and eye for detail. Later they talked, both liked the idea of a duo, which was also being actively encouraged by ACT boss Andreas Brandis. The duo brings out commitment, enjoyment and a sense of forward momentum for both of them. “It’s special when we meet,” says Simcock. “We have met up as often as possible, and the duo has evolved every time we got together,” Rawicz enthuses.

The critics have loved their early performances. “Rawicz and Simcock excelled, both in the calmer pieces and their more energetic forays. Their communication and conversational interaction were superb,” wrote Polish writer Krzysztof Komorek of their first concert in London. For Deutschlandfunk Kultur, their Jazz Baltica appearance was an undoubted highlight of the 2024 festival.

The album was recorded in the quietly idyllic surroundings of Curtis Schwarz’s studio in the West Sussex countryside in Southern England – and on the Steinway “D” which Simcock originally selected for the studio. The mood at the sessions was “relaxed, easy,” Simcock remembers. They had the freedom to work throughout long days and to take breaks when they wanted. The result is an album in which they have successfully achieved fascinating contrasts between moods of calm on the one hand, and “going for it big-time” on the other – an approach which they allude to in the album’s title, “Big Visit”.

The track titles on “Big Visit” often have a playful element. Gwilym Simcock’s “His Great Adventure”, the opening track, is written in dedication to the boldness of the pianist’s young son. Rawicz’s “The Drumbledrone” uses the Devonian word for a bumblebee; it reminds her of a time as a small child, before she had learned to distinguish Devonian – which her grandmother spoke – from standard English. Simcock’s “Optimum Friction” is a reference to the piano riff at the beginning having some “grindy” inner harmonies. There is a more wistful side too: “Shape of a new Sun” is a quote from the novel ‘Half of a Yellow Sun’ by Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Stevie Wonder’s “Visions” has a clever rhythmic twist. The final track, the ballad “You’ve Changed”, Rawicz says, “brings back to me a particularly happy memory of having learnt the tune by ear as a student.”

What’s not to like? Emma Rawicz and Gwilym Simcock clearly both enjoy the duo setting. Critics and audiences are loving it. Their repertoire is growing all the time. They have started with a very strong album. It will be fascinating to watch this like-minded duo as it develops.