Still only 20 years old, and studying at London’s Guildhall School of Music, Emily Masser broke on the UK jazz scene with her debut album Introducing Emily Masser (REVIEW LINK BELOW) with the Clark Tracey Quintet in early 2024. Less than a year later she is back with a new band alongside her father, new material, new twists and for the first time her own song in Song For My Mother. If this all sounds a bit family-focused there’s no need to worry – it pays off in so many ways in this all-killer, no-filler outing.

Every number has a memorable twist. The classic Old Devil Moon, taken at a romping pace, has Emily and Dean playing a unison scat chorus together on vocals and tenor saxophone which puts the icing on the already-nutritious cake baked by London-based Hungarian Matyas Gayer and his sparkling piano, James Owston’s swinging bass and Latin-influenced cymbal and drum work of Steve Brown. These are of course all leading members of London’s jazz scene and it’s wonderful to hear them all pulling together here.

Dat Dere sees Masser turn around Oscar Brown’s original lyric about the perils of raising an infant from the parent’s perspective to the child’s. Even better, she adds a tremendous vocalese section now she’s grown up (or blown up or landed in a stew) and wants not a stuffed elephant but a new car. Tenor, piano and bass solos swing along in support. The Boy Next Door, introduced as a slow waltz by Judy Garland in Meet Me In St Louis, is taken as a 4/4 ballad which kicks up several gears for the solos (and nods to waltz time for a few bars near the end).

The album is called Songs With My Father (a clear nod to Horace Silver’s Song For My Father, beloved of jam sessioneers around the world). Emily’s late mother (she passed away just before Emily moved to London to study) is also a key presence. Song For My Mother is an Emily and Dean Masser original, a bossa nova sung in the first person as a moving tribute. In this context, I’ll Be Seeing You takes on a very personal and heart-rending meaning; it’s beautifully sung here, straight and direct – bringing moisture to the eye of even this grizzled listener in his cold garret.

I don’t want to reveal all the secrets of this stonking album, so I won’t mention the fast scat sections of Horace Silver’s Room 608…or the swinging stops on Peggy Lee’s Take A Little Time To Smile (where Dean Masser begins to see the light)…or the All-Blues-style treatment of Jobim’s Double Rainbow…or for that matter the spritely run at Thelonious Monk’s Hackensack where Emily shows that her lead horn scat improvising is absolutely a match for her much more experienced dad. I didn’t mention them – you’ll have to listen to the album.

I remember Rick Wakeman talking about the conclusion of his studies at the Royal College of Music in 1969, also aged 20. Already an in-demand session musician, he was shown the door by his professor who told him “You don’t always have to finish the course to finish the course” and bade him farewell. Whichever way Emily finished her course, this story is just beginning. There’s plenty of time, and for now there’s this superb set to enjoy.

Songs With My Father was released on 31 January 2025, and launched with a gig at Southport Jazz Festival on 1 February. The band is touring around England through 2025 including London’s Pizza Express on Monday 3 March. (TOUR DATES BELOW)

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The Fury is a super-group of top New York talent whose names may not be so familiar in the United Kingdom. Drummer Tyshawn Sorey won the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Music and is a MacArthur Foundation ‘Genius Grant’ recipient. He appeared with his trio at the 2024 London Jazz Festival in a Kings Place show which also featured bassist Matt Brewer, a band leader in his own right. Guitarist Lage Lund is a past winner of the Thelonious Monk competition and was the first jazz guitarist to be admitted to the Julliard School of Music. Tenor saxophonist Mark Turner has a distinguished string of albums to his name both as a leader and sideman. This is a line-up to be relished.

Giant Step Arts, an innovative artist-focused non-profit, invited the group to make an initial recording over two shows at the Ornithology club in Brooklyn in August 2023. The group took their name from the 1929 William Faulkner novel The Sound and the Fury – which in turn is a nod to Shakespeare’s Macbeth – and they certain deliver sound-wise. The music opens with Like A Flower Seeking The Sun from the pen of fellow New Yorker and saxophonist Myron Walden. It sets the standard for what’s to come, a sinuous melody performed with restraint by Turner with the rhythm section delightfully together-yet-fluid. Lage Lund solos first, his light touch riding the superbly driven waves from Brewer and Sorey; the whole thing is a masterclass in how to be full of sound without necessarily being furious. Turner steps forward to solo – his sound has been compared to cool schooler Warne Marsh and he, like Lund, delivers with panache and restraint. Brewer takes a turn on bass and shows himself as equal to the others with Sorey providing the lightest of imaginative punctuations.

The remaining six numbers are written by band members and continue the overall feel. Matt Brewer’s Of Our Time is a ballad with Lund almost sounding like a Rhodes piano in supporting the tune. Mark Turner provides the skittish Ender’s Game which lets Sorey show just how fast and cleanly he can ride his cymbals, flittering between single and double time so often that we give up caring and just get swept along; there are moments of sublime connectedness as sax and guitar go from chordal to fugal and back. Lund bring three numbers; Couch has a swagger and a phrase reminding me of Stan Tracey’s Under Milk Wood, Jimbo is an intricate theme with bass and sax interplay, and Vignette has a quiet swing with Brewer dropping into epic walking bass from time to time. The album closes with Mark Turner’s Sonnet For Stevie, Brewer’s bass getting a welcome chance to take the lead.

This is engrossing music of the highest quality. Everyone is switched-on all the time, and Sorey’s drums in particular are an ever-present support and encouragement to the group process. The group are back at Ornithology this month to record more, and I’m looking forward to seeing how they develop as a collective.

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Mulligan is perhaps best remembered for his sinuous tunes and fine arrangements, including for Miles Davis’ Birth Of The Cool sessions, and also for his early quartet with trumpeter Chet Baker. This album comes from a slightly later time when Mulligan, by now an acclaimed star, was taking the chance to spread his wings and take advantage of the opportunities coming his way. A new quartet was formed with Art Farmer (trumpet), Bill Crow (bass) and Dave Bailey (drums). Following a successful appearance at Newport in 1958, they went into the studio to record What Is There To Say?, regarded as one of Mulligan’s finest. This is the band we hear here.

The set starts with a slightly unexpected introduction to the group members from drum star Gene Krupa. It turns out that Krupa’s Quartet was touring Europe on a Norman Granz package along with the Mulligan Quartet and the Jimmy Guiffre Three, with this Stockholm show on the programme. Now there’s an evening to savour! The band kicks in to As Catch Can, a spritely blowing vehicle at with Mulligan leading off. Art Farmer is a great partner on trumpet, more than capable of keeping up and adding brassy verve to the proceedings. Mulligan swings along with his soft tone belying the force of his playing. As with his previous quartet, this is a (mostly) chordless affair with no piano or guitar which means the horns have an extra role in hitting the harmonies and adding backing, which they do peerlessly.

Not entirely chordless though: Mulligan moves to the piano for I Can’t Get Started With You, with Farmer taking the melody in style. People sometimes talk about ‘arranger’s piano’, where a musician can play well enough to sort out an arrangement without particular virtuosity; Mulligan goes beyond this cliché with not just delicately chunky backings but also a well-paced solo laced with emotion as well as precision. Just In Time has the leader back on baritone, bouncing along with Bill Crow’s double bass underpinning the tune delightfully. It turns out that Crow is not only still with us at the age of 96, he also contributes sleeve notes recalling the band and the tour. Drummer Dave Bailey is a model of unshowy precision throughout.

Spring Is Spring is a classic Mulligan theme performed by the composer on piano. The altered blues sequences bounces along joyfully with a nicely played slowdown to close. Blueport is Farmer’s tune, a very unaltered blues which really pulls along with fine dynamics (Mulligan opens quietly and builds, plenty of outrageous quotes, Farmer picks up the baton until both are flat-out with breaks and swaps). The closing Utter Chaos is anything but, two and a half minutes of jaunty Mulligan magic, flirting with double time with all four musicians gelling marvellously.

This is a superb set, capturing the atmosphere of an evening more than 65 years ago as if it were yesterday. Bill Crow recalls that the Stockholm audience were particularly appreciative and friendly, which seems to have encouraged the musicians to a relaxed on-the-money performance. Well worth chasing up.

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Born on the north coast of Scotland and growing up in Glasgow, Watson played with youth jazz orchestras and won the Dewar Jazz Award in 2017. He then went south to seek his fortune (or at least his degree) at the Guildhall School of Music before returning to Scotland in 2022. Watson arrived at a time when a folk-influenced melodic jazz style, led by musicians such as Fergus McCreadie, is coming to the fore. Watson’s music is very much in this tradition, evoking the Highland landscape, flora and fauna.

This quartet has been together for a while and the players know each other well. (Watson quipped that they hadn’t performed together in six months – it didn’t show!) Award-winner, and a band leader in his own right, Alan Benzie is central on piano and provides pulses and ripples along with the juicy harmonic shifts written by Watson. Greg Irons is much in demand behind the drum kit and plays with unswerving sensitivity and colour. Tenor saxophonist Matt Carmichael, another key figure on the scene with two albums to his name (both featuring Watson on bass), adds his melodic and considered sound to the mix.

This show was the first date in a short tour to perform and release Watson’s debut album. It’s a sign of his creativity that three of the numbers were works-in-progress, not recorded yet – simply having enough material for an album is clearly not going to stop the writing and developing. Glen opened the performance, as it opens the album, with piano and bass setting up the theme played by Carmichael. A fine bass solo followed, lots of space and air around the music. And yet, Watson’s tunes have a impressively strong harmonic structures and the band gives off an unwaveringly positive sense of real purpose and focus.

Moss allows Alan Benzie to take the spotlight for a moment, which he does with impeccable style. Snowdrift is a duet for piano and arco bass, with Watson conjuring harmonics and effects from around the bridge of his instrument. Evening Song closed the first half in fine style and was also the first number in 4/4 time – another sign that this music comes from a new direction. The second set continued with two new tunes and the title track Terrarium; Watson spoke about his fascination with these tiny manicured ecologies which can become even more exciting when they are left to grow unchecked. A definite metaphor for the music.

This performance took place at the Beacon Arts Centre in Greenock, on the south bank of the Clyde to the west of Glasgow. Opening in 2013 the Beacon offers a modern space for arts shows of all kinds. (When I visited, the main theatre had Alba Ballet performing Cinderella while the jazz was in the smaller but very well-equipped and acoustically sympathetic Studio). It’s a first-rate venue in a part of Scotland which is easily overlooked; the area has more than its share of challenges and also has wonderful views across the river and adjoining sea lochs, stunning civic architecture and is close to ferries to Argyll, Bute and Arran. Well worth a visit for anyone seeking something a bit different in Scotland’s central belt and beyond.

See the Ali Watson Quartet:

• 25th November – Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh
• 26th November – The Rumshack, Glasgow (album launch)

The post Ali Watson Quartet first appeared on UK Jazz News.

Gary Smulyan has been in the business for over 40 years and has held the baritone sax chair in the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra (formerly the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Big Band) since 1980. The group still plays at the Village Vanguard every Monday night, a must-see if you’re in New York. He has been at the top of his game for years, winning six Grammys and many polls. His new partner is Frank Basile, from New York via Texas and relatively new kid on the block, also performing with top groups including the Bob Mintzer Big Band and the Jon Faddis Jazz Orchestra. These guys, both influenced by Pepper Adams, seem to have the NYC baritone business sown up between them, so when they started performing together in 2020 (a week before the pandemic) it was clearly a match that had to happen. Many more dates followed, leading up to this debut album recorded in December 2023.

The title of the album (Boss Baritones) is a clear and obvious call-back to the long-lived Tough Tenors line-up featuring Johnny Griffin and Eddie ‘Lockjaw’ Davis, who entertained fans around the world (and on several albums) with their take-no-prisoners full-on style. Heck, they even open with a Griffin/Davis anthem, Matthew Gee’s Oh Gee, a 12-bar plus middle eight romp that’s made for this kind of duelling dynamism. We’re right away into the two horns swapping choruses and then fours in exhilarating style. It’s fully five minutes into the track before they pause for breath, allowing Steve Ash on piano and Mike Karn on bass, both New York regulars, to take a turn.

The music continues to bring forth sparkling takes on modern jazz standards. I’ll Never Be The Same is taken at a rollicking pace with tuneful horn harmonies in the theme. Star Eyes, made popular by Charlie Parker, opens with chunky horn riffing and offers a good outing for Karn’s springy bass. The Tough Tenors influence continues with Lockjaw Davis’ Hey Lock and Griffin’s Fifty-Six, a late career composition buzzing with the pace and energy for which the ‘Little Giant’ was renowned.

Illinois Jacquet’s loping 1949 tune Black Velvet is as close as we get to a ballad in this set; there’s a bit of space to hear how the two horns compare at less-than-galloping speed, with Basile’s solo rich in thematic statements and Smulyan fluent in coasting around the chords. Eddie Haywood’s Land Of Dreams is given a sprightly Latin introduction, while Byas A Drink is Don Byas’ contrafact on Stompin’ At The Savoy, a very happy meeting of tune and talent. The set sprints to a close with tenor saxist JR Montrose’s 1959 belter Straight Ahead with Smulyan taking his solo as a duo with Aaron Seeber on drums, with Seeber finally getting a bit of solo space before the closing theme.

This very enjoyable album will find many enthusiastic listeners who will know what they’re getting and will love the ride with these two baritone masters. It’s almost like it’s 1959 all over again…

Mark McKergow’s show “A History of Jazz in Four Saxophones will be on the 2024 Edinburgh Fringe – DETAILS / BOOKINGS

Boss Baritones is released today, Friday 28 June 2024.

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The summer is festival season in Edinburgh, and Edinburgh Jazz & Blues returns throughout the city for ten days in July with more than 120 events. For those who can’t make it to Edinburgh, some concerts will be livestreamed, and some specially recorded gigs will be available online.

The Festival has built a strong relationship with trumpeter Laura Jurd, who this year curates a programme of gigs under the banner “From Folk To Freedom”. She features in a premiere of her own music, accompanied by Martin Green, Ultan O’Brien, Ruth Goller, and Corrie Dick (Sunday 14 July, 16.30, St Bride’s Centre). Other highlights of “From Folk To Freedom” are a rare visit to the capital by Chris Batchelor’s Zoetic (Monday 15 July 2024, 18:00, St Bride’s Centre/ FEATURE BY JOHN FORDHAM) and Norman Willmore Sextet (Tuesday 16 July 2024, 18:00, St Bride’s Centre), which includes both Jurd and Dick.

An early highlight will be BBC Scotland Young Jazz Musician 2023, pianist Ben Shankland with his top-class trio (Ewan Hastie double bass and Chun-Wei Kang drums) who will be joined by Helena Kay on saxophone and guitarist Ben MacDonald. Friday 12 July, 18.00 at George Square Piccolo.

Fergus McCreadie Octet was the highlight of the 2022 Festival, and their return promises the same this year (Saturday 13 July 2024, 19:00, George Square Spiegeltent). The collaboration between Fergus McCreadie Trio and the Manchester Collective, which recently toured the UK to great acclaim (including an excellent broadcast on BBC Radio 3), The Unfurrowed Field, is on Tuesday 16 July 2024, 18:00 at George Square Spiegeltent.

EJBF has commissioned new music from Colin Steele Quartet. After recent projects exploring the songs of the Pearlfisher and Joni Mitchell, the trumpeter will be playing the music of Glasgow cult band The Blue Nile, whose sense of longing melancholy will likely be well matched to the trumpter’s muted horn (Sunday 14 July 2024, 20:30, St Bride’s Centre).

Grand master of the tenor sax Tommy Smith is back with his fusion-ish band Karma, playing a new suite. This quartet are all virtuosi, and the music will fizz with two hours of energy and invention. Friday 12 July, 21.00 St Brides Centre.

The recent announcement of the refurbishment of the Jazz Bar means EJBF can make full use of the venue, with two gigs and a jam session each night during the Festival. Three stand outs from the Jazz Bar programme are Fraser Fifield Secret Path (Sunday 14 July 2024, 18:00); Matthew Kilner, who was outstanding last year with Richard Glassby Quartet, bring his own quartet (Friday 19 July 2024, 20:00); and Helena Kay Quartet, who appear on the final day of the Festival (Sunday 21 July 2024, 20:00).

If you have yet to catch up with Glasgow singer kitti, this is your chance; she appears with a large band including Italian trumpeter Daniele Raimondi and tenor sax titan Harry Weir. Expect soulful sounds and bluey wails from this magnetic young performer. Tuesday 16 July, 20.30, George Square Speigeltent.

Perhaps the most exciting gig in the Festival to look forward to is Tim Garland Lighthouse Trio, with Gwilym Simcock and Asaf Sirkis, which celebrates its twentieth anniversary this year and recently released the highly acclaimed recording “Moment of Departure” (Thursday 18 July 2024, 20:30, St Bride’s Centre). (FEATURE BY JOHN FORDHAM)

Editor’s note: Jazz historian/UKJN contributor Francesco Martinelli will be doing a lecture with visual and sound illustrations on the origins and history of Italian jazz at St Bride’s on 15 July.

Patrick Hadfield lives in Edinburgh, occasionally takes photographs, and sometimes blogs at On the Beat.

Mark McKergow also lives in Edinburgh where he plays saxophone and has a 2024 Fringe show, A History of Jazz in Four Saxophones, coming up in August. He writes at markmckergow.substack.com.

The post Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival 2024 :12-21 July first appeared on UK Jazz News.

Roger Beaujolais is celebrating his 40^th year as a professional vibraphonist. Emerging extravagantly ponytailed into the 1980s acid jazz/dance/jive scene with the Chevalier Brothers, he has stayed true to the tuned percussion line by performing in many settings including a regular slot with Fairground Attraction. Now the ponytail has transmogrified into a beard of ZZ Top proportions, Beaujolais is still entranced by classic jazz and in particular how it can be performed on vibes.

Milt Jackson (1923-1999) was, of course, one of the greatest vibes players of all. Nicknamed ‘Bags’ (apparently because even as a young man he had bags under his eyes), Jackson was a mainstay of the Modern Jazz Quartet (MJQ) for over four decades. Tuxedoed and tidy, the MJQ are credited with taking jazz into the concert hall with their polished, restrained cool-school performances. Jackson wrote the classic 12-bar head Bags’ Groove and loved to play the blues, particularly at slow to medium tempos. This album Bags Of Vibes, recorded in 2017 and delayed by the pandemic, is both a tribute to Jackson and his music, a celebration of the vibraphone which first went on sale in 1924, and a wonderful excuse to lay down some great jazz.

The album opens with Blues For Bags, Roger Beaujolais’ own original tribute to Jackson. And of course, it’s a swinging blues which also features guest guitarist Jim Mullen who joins the quartet for three numbers. Milt Jackson performed and recorded with Wes Montgomery, and so Mullen’s Wes-inspired thumb picking style sits superbly well in the mix. The band comprises Robin Aspland (piano), Simon Thorpe (double bass) and Winston Clifford (drums), all Beaujolais regulars and right on top of the music throughout.

The album continues by picking up some class Bags numbers from down the years. John Lewis’ tune Django, written for the MJQ, is taken at a lilting tempo with solos from Beaujolais and Aspland, bookended by the slower intro/outro section. Wes Montgomery’s Jingles is tailor-made for Jim Mullen to stretch out on, which he does with verve and precision. Several Milt Jackson compositions follow; Some Kinda Waltz springs along in triple time while the swaggering SKJ, taken from the 1962 album Bags Meets Wes!, is another chance for Mullen to shine.

Heartstrings offers the musicians the chance to relax into a ballad, with Beaujolais particularly effective in his statement of the theme and subsequent solo. Come To Me goes relaxed bossa with Simon Thorpe nicely gymnastic on double bass; whoever engineered the sound please take a bow, the bass tone is superb, even on my small speakers. Artie Shaw’s Moonray was a Jackson favourite; the take here is swinging and soulful. The album closes – inevitably – with Bags’ Groove, downtempo, grooving and irresistible.

This album is a joyous celebration with top-class playing and great numbers throughout. Highly recommended for long-time Jackson fans or for anyone eager to hear what the vibraphone can do in very skilled hands.

Roger Beaujolais is touring with his quartet, latin quartet and Fairground Attraction in the coming months, including some special ‘100 Years Of Vibraphone’ concerts.

The post Roger Beaujolais Quartet – ‘Bags Of Vibes’ first appeared on UK Jazz News.

Keyboardist Keith Emerson (1944-2016) was the driving force behind The Nice, and also Emerson, Lake and Palmer (ELP) in the late 1960s and through the 1970s. Both groups were known for symphonic influences, combining classical and rock music, their showmanship on stage, all focused by Emerson’s compositions. At their peak in the early 1970s ELP were one of the biggest bands in the world.

The music of ELP and, to a lesser extent The Nice, has been much reissued, and even re-performed by dedicated enthusiasts. However, Thierry Eliez is attempting something new with this album; to re-present significant parts of Emerson’s compositions on grand piano, with just a string quartet and vocalist for company. The original works were performed on a variety of instruments including Hammond organ and Moog synthesiser, frequently accompanied by thundering drums. Eliez’s versions have much more space, and really allow us to get acquainted with the music in a new way; shorn of the sound and fury, they still signify a considerable talent at work.

Material from the first seven ELP albums is including, along with a section of The Nice’s Five Bridges suite, all arranged into three suites plus some extra tracks. The opening Tarkus Enigma suite draws on Tarkus, perhaps Emerson’s most iconic work, and the Trilogy album. It is clear from the outset that Eliez is well up to the hefty task of tackling Emerson’s music, moving as it does from thrilling Cecil Taylor-style rumbles and attacks to rippling peaceful interludes to quick time signature changes. The string quartet is well deployed, sometimes as a unit and sometimes with the cello (Guillaume Latil) acting as a de facto bass to underpin the music with the higher strings (Johan Renard and Khoa-Nam Nguyen, violins and Vladimir Percevic, viola) adding emphasis and harmony. The Fugue section is particularly effective, allowing us to really hear and enjoy Emerson’s fugal writing and intricate construction. The suite finishes with a brief visit to the finale from Pictures At An Exhibition.

The strings play a key role in Knife Edge, with an almost hoedown feel against the big bass lines, momentum building and bits of Bach coming in. Vocals are handled by Ceilin Poggi who is a pretty good match for Greg Lake’s pure style. Take A Pebble is an ambitious take, moving from the opening ballad to an extended passage drawing on Piano Improvisations (which were not always as improvised as one might think). This is where Thierry Eliez is at his most effective, building momentum and releasing the tension with some superb delicacy and awareness.

The second suite takes from Brain Salad Surgery, and is perhaps the least successful section; the piece from Karn Evil 9 was originally performed on solo piano and Eliez brings little new, aside from admiration of how he can sound so precisely like Emerson when he wants to. Benny The Bouncer, a novelty song at best, struggles to deserve its place. The third and final suite, however, is a fine outing including Chorale from The Nice’s Bridges Suite, commissioned by Newcastle and first performed there, with locally referenced words by Lee Jackson. There’s a super fugue-style passage before Eliez moves, inspired, to the finale of Emerson’s Piano Concerto from 1977, a majestic piece of writing. The final bars of Aquatarkus close the album, bringing us full circle.

This album brings back Keith Emerson’s music in a new form, to be experienced and appreciated afresh and perhaps reassessed some fifty years after it appeared. For those who enjoyed them back in the day, this is a fascinating and thoroughly musical reboot. For those new to this music, Emerson Enigma is a great way to discover something that was once chart-topping and can still raise a musical eyebrow.

The post Thierry Eliez – ‘Emerson Enigma’ first appeared on UK Jazz News.

Jack McDuff emerged onto the organ jazz scene in the early 1960s, recording albums for Prestige (including the 1961 classic The Honeydripper) and Atlantic. He also gave young guitarist George Benson his first break. Benson moved on in 1965, replaced by Vinnie Corrao. As the 1960s turned into the 1970s organ jazz was perhaps fading in popularity, small club dates became a necessity as did the inclusion of popular tunes of the day. That’s where we find McDuff and colleagues at The Gallery in Seattle on Wednesday 13^th September 1972, three days into a week’s residency at the opening of a national tour. (Richard ‘Groove’ Holmes appeared the week before, so the proprietors clearly liked their organists.)

Although McDuff was often to be heard leading organ trios, he was keen to appear with horn players too. Here we find the usual trio line-up augmented by two tenor saxophonists and (sitting in for the second half) an unknown trumpeter. The ephemeral nature of this recording is confirmed by the fact that one tune is itself listed as ‘Unknown’! The reel-to-reel tape is from the collection of Jim Wilke, Seattle jazz DJ legend and instigator of many live recordings for radio broadcast, which are now appearing on the excellent Real To Reel label. As always in this series, the accompanying booklet is packed with information, recollections and photos.

The show opens with Theme From Electric Surfboard, released by McDuff as a single the previous year. A quietly brooding groover, the theme sees saxophonists Leo Johnson and Dave Young swapping phrases with the organ as Vinnie Corrao holds down an ostinato backing guitar line. The composition is quite sophisticated with swelling Lesley speaker reverb adding to the drama, releasing into the first solo. This is a key feature throughout the album; McDuff was a great arranger and used all his options to create variety, building tension with long notes, drum breaks, repeated phrases and then releasing into the next part of the tune with a great shove in the back for the incoming soloist.

Here the first soloist is McDuff himself. He’s using a sound that seems to be a plinky distorted Fender Rhodes piano but no – it’s a curious and individual setting of drawbars on his Hammond B3 organ. McDuff sets out for well over six minutes of exploration with just Corrao’s guitar line and Ron Davis’ drums for company. Davis is exemplary here and throughout the album, holding the beat and also adding variety. The horns step in occasionally to set up another break, and it’s back to it – very entertaining and bewitching simple.

Next up is my personal favourite track, a take on the nursery rhyme Three Blind Mice. Coltraneish chords announce the number, with the tune played in crunchy harmony by the horns and organ, falling into a drum break – and we’re off again! This time the solos are over a 12-bar blues sequence, a staple of the organ jazz canon. Everyone gets a turn; Corrao neat and fluent on guitar, McDuff back on a more conventional organ sound, Johnson displaying Eric Dolphy-ish intonation and tone (if not dexterity), and Young with softer sound and a tendency to fall over himself playing fast. In short there’s a reason why these two reedsmen are not recalled as being in the Premier League but they are effective and lively in this club setting. Davis’ drums get the honour of teeing up all the solo sections.

The album proceeds with Bill Withers’ classic Ain’t No Sunshine (a hit the previous year), another full and interesting arrangement with Leo Johnson taking a smooth flute solo. I’m Getting Sentimental Over You is a cue for a swelling (sentimental) organ intro before Johnson leads the melody on tenor and makes the most of his cadenza. Blues 1 & 8 swings along in textbook fashion before the saxophonists take their turns; full marks to the label for being clear about who is playing where in the stereo spread. The second set sees more McDuff originals including The Jolly Black Giant and Middle Class Folk Song, the latter shuffling along reflectively.

This is a wonderful chance to step back in time to the autumn of 1972 and sit in on a live and cooking session with one of the top jazz organists of all time.

Double LP released 14 April 2024 / CD and digital album released 17 May 2024 including a bonus track

The post Brother Jack McDuff – ‘Ain’t No Sunshine’ first appeared on UK Jazz News.

The Defenders announce that they are ‘defending’ the spirit of hard bop jazz along the lines of Horace Silver, Lee Morgan and Art Blakey. That’s a great endeavour – and to be doing it by playing entirely original material is something else altogether. Assembled by keyboardist George Cooper and hailing from the south west of England, the group features first-call talent in the horn section in the shape of Jake McMurchie (Get The Blessing) on tenor saxophone and Nick Malcolm (Jade Quartet, Kevin Figes) on trumpet.

The rhythm section is no less stellar, with drummer Ian Matthews taking time out from Kasabian, joined by Bristol stalwart Will Harris on double bass. Cooper is himself widely travelled with a CV ranging from Hans Zimmer through Nigel Kennedy and U2 to the Brand New Heavies, so the ensemble is already dripping with possibilities.

Do they deliver? Yes, sir – in spades. The nine tracks are mainly provided by George Cooper, occasionally in collaboration with other band members. The opening Meanderthal has a twinge of Lee Morgan’s Sidewinder about it, jumpy and funky, with plenty of scope for Ian Matthews drums to walk the line between forward push and swinging decoration. Fittingly, the trumpet is first out of the blocks for solos with Nick Malcom packing some punch, with Cooper following on organ (accompanying himself on piano – which seems to fit very nicely). The solos are quite short and there’s a lot of potential for extending the music in a live setting.

The Long Haul, far from it at just under five minutes, see straight eights, pulsing piano and rimshots ticking along. Will Harris takes an effective solo over the piano before Cooper channels Bruce Hornsby for a flowing piano spot. McMurchie demonstrates his great tone with some subtle squeezes and squirls. Chasing Fantasies has a nice extended head with Latin and swing sections, and like all these track packs in a lot of interest.

Rolling On A High sees the band joined by vocalist Doc Brown with some rap-style verses, great fun and smart rhyming to the fore. Brown is putting out how inspired he is by the band, leading to the song title. The horn section work here, as elsewhere on the album, is really first-rate; it sounds like much more than just two instruments together behind the developing story. The fact that the album is on Haggis Records, home of the legendary Haggis Horns, is testament to the top-class tone of the enterprise.

Fuffle Kershuffle, contributed by Will Harris, is a loping shuffle with McMurchie entering through a long saxophone glissando – you don’t hear that every day. Ian Matthews is again right in the mix on drums. Snakebite Playfight is perhaps my favourite track, switching easily between funk and swing with some tightly wound horn melody passages. Cooper mixes it up again with Rhodes piano and organ before a punchy thrash ending. The closing Enigma, by contrast, is a piano/bass duet recorded live at the Duc Des Lombards club in Paris; reflective and rich, it gives a super contrast to everything that’s gone before.

Memory In Motion is released on 19 April 2024. The band is currently touring – FULL LISTING

Aberdeen Thursday 18 April
Falkirk Friday 19 April
Edinburgh 20 April
Newcastle 21 April
London album launch at Pizza Express, Tuesday 30 April
May dates in France

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