The Rosemary Songbook celebrates the 25 year marriage of John and Rosemary Coldwell, and Hornweb wish to thank John Coldwell whose very generous financial support has funded this release in full.

Martin Archer and Derek Saw originally founded Hornweb in 1983, and in the following decade the group made 3 LPs and performed hundreds of concerts across the jazz clubs and arts centres of the UK with occasional forays into Europe. The model for the group was a million miles away from the then current fashion for swinging, jazzy saxophone quartets. Archer and Saw looked more to the R&B backgrounds and compositional sophistication of their AACM heroes in terms of both their personal playing styles and in the structure of Hornweb's music - "a searing mixture of abstraction and roots" as one reviewer (Ben Watson - Wire) put it.

The group disbanded in 1993 against a background of vanished performance opportunities in the UK. Twelve years later, Archer and Saw , now working for the first time together once again (excepting a few one off recording sessions in the intervening period), decided the time was right to resurrect the brand name with some exciting new material and a revamped lineup including friend / collaborator / compatible spirit Collins.

Hornweb was, of course, initially a saxophone quartet and latterly a quintet including trumpet or trombone, while this new version of the group is a multi-instrumental trio. But the nature of the music itself - jazz based, horn led, and in the AACM tradition - clearly indicates line of continuity directly from the old group.

Since 1993 Archer had concentrated mainly on electronics based studio work, and only in the last 3 or 4 years started to re-engage with the physical process of the saxophone to any degree other than making cameo appearances on his own records. But having become interested again, alto and baritone saxes and bass and Bb clarinets were quickly added to the arsenal of reeds to compliment his solitary sopranino sax. Meanwhile Saw, following the disastrous theft of all his saxophones, had taken the decision to re-invent himself as a multi instrumental brass performer, starting with trumpet and adding tenor horn and tuba in due course, and in doing so had spent a number of years investigating his pre Hornweb passion for blues and early forms of jazz, especially the music of New Orleans. Making up the trio - and thereby completing a lineup which was conceived 25 years ago, but which never happened until now - is longtime associate Charlie Collins, another former saxophonist now concentrating on vibraphone plus an alarming variety of Middle Eastern and metal percussion.

The initial idea for this CD - that every track stick to a 3 minute time limit - was designed to place emphasis on rapid turnover of structure and texture rather than on extended improvisation, and is also a direct reference to the time discipline placed on musicians who pioneered the recording of this music in its earliest days. This decision has enabled the group to cover a lot of ground on the CD, moving rapidly between improv based pieces with no composed material via electronics through to more notated and jazzier stuff. Throughout, computer processed rhythm loops alternate with real time percussion to provide the backgrounds for the horns and vibes.

Hornweb was always a live group first and foremost, and we hope with this new concept and new material to return to entertaining live audiences if the appropriate opportunities can be made to materialize his time round.

CD available direct from Discus at www.discus-music.co.uk