One vocal artist pondering this is the Swiss Andreas Schaerer, whose voice is of course a remarkable instrument, and who habitually sings in several languages, or none. On this latest release from his quartet with drummer Lucas Niggli, guitarist Kalle Kalima and accordionist Luciano Biondini, six years after their debut A Novel of Anomaly (link to review below), he takes this a step further. There are wordless vocals here, but also tracks where Schaerer sings in an improvised language. This is made up of non-words that nonetheless use phonemes that suggest the listener is hearing one or more European languages.

That is quite effective in some ways, lending the sometimes quite complex written lines an improvised quality, and allowing Schaerer to extemporise freely in the same vein using a teasing repertoire of sounds that is a vocabulary only in the musical sense yet comes across like he might be using actual words.

It also aligns conceptually with the sentiment that informs the quartet’s musical project here, a wish to move beyond borders, transcend territories, and emphasise cultural expression that conveys our common humanity – hence Anthem for No Man’s Land.

Some might feel music does that anyway, just as group improvisation always benefits from open-hearted communication between the players. And in truth the new album does not sound radically different from the quartet’s first offering. That’s a good thing, as this is a tremendous group. Niggli and Kallima have a long sympathy with Schaerer’s dizzying variety of vocal styles, and Biondini’s exuberant accordion flights are an inspiring match for the singer. As before, there are diverse folk strains, jazz rhythms, and touches of prog rock – with Schaerer’s bass synth added to soaring electric guitar, cuts like the title track here or the rocker Bad Eye would not disappoint fans of Yes, especially if they were looking for more interesting vocals than that group supplied.

But they operate in several other modes, often subtly reflective and with just two or three of the players interacting with some delicacy. It’s a beguiling mix, sometimes tending to the slightly melancholic but always engaging. The tailpiece Sogna Belimo, is a simple wordless song that is both those things. Wordless? Well, it features Schaerer’s language-that-is-no-language and on this one it does become a little distracting. On reflection, that affects a few other tracks too. Ironically, unlike the first album, where your monoglot reviewer was content to ignore the words of songs in other languages and just hearken to the voice, the slow vocal here sounds as if it is wrapped round words you ought to able to discern, but cannot. The effect, for me, is not so much universal communication as a moment of post-Babel bewilderment, in which all languages have become incomprehensible. Which is to say that Schaerer’s linguistic experiment here is certainly interesting, but not perhaps entirely successful. Musically, though, it detracts only a little from another splendid album from a unique quartet.

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Stringle has been a pioneer in placing the clarinet in a more contemporary musical setting and this came through strongly in his fresh interpretations of classic tunes, as well as the straight-ahead jazz compositions and the more latin-influenced numbers in the set. During the performance he name-checked key early influences Benny Goodman and Buddy de Franco and he certainly brought together both the awe-inspiring technique and speed of the former and the warm feeling of the latter’s playing to his own pure transcendent tone.

The band kicked off with the latin tune “Hey You, Pretty Thing”, which set the tone with its well-paced, body-moving and confident feel. After Stringle’s soaring opening, Ashworth excelled in his solo, his precise, tangy notes really hitting the spot over Bradley’s distinctively sharp funky drumming and Mantovani’s bass-playing. The latter’s style, including the chordal elements, displayed a real affinity with the Brazilian feel of the piece.

Jacqui Hicks joined the band to deliver two Rodgers & Hart songs including a very fine “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered” in a samba style to close the first set. Her singing was beautifully judged and refreshingly unfussy, with a focus on the delivery of the meaning in the lyrics. This was backed by some wonderfully supple drumming from Bradley and another crystalline solo from Stringle.

A highlight of the second set was the Ashworth-arranged version of Gershwin’s masterpiece “Rhapsody in Blue”, which had the audience entranced throughout with the sheer quality of the band’s playing. Both Stringle and Ashworth excelled, the former particularly with his effortless swoops and the high-pitch ending of the piece, the latter with the precise interweaving of his guitar notes with the clarinet’s line. Again, Mantovani also impressed with his subtle underpinning pulse.

Throughout the gig, Stringle proved to be both a supportive leader and an entertaining and charismatic figure. At one point he introduced the standard “Poor Butterfly” as his Spurs-supporting nan’s favourite song before relating a good story about her meeting Harry Kane. The audience lapped it up.

Hicks returned to deliver one of her own compositions, the bossa-like “Summer Samba”. In a pleasing change of pace, this was followed by a properly soulful version of Holland-Dozier-Holland’s classic “How Sweet It Is”, expertly delivered by the Shakatak vocalist. On the latter tune, Stringle’s tone was spectacular, especially at the higher registers. The band closed with another Dream Band staple, “Sweet Georgia Brown”, its excellent groove orchestrated by Bradley, before encoring with a pacy “I got Rhythm/Anthropology.”

The audience buzz at the start was still very much there after the music had ceased. Overall, a brilliant gig, and The Horsebridge Arts Centre’s monthly ‘Jazz at the Horsebridge’ series, organised by musical director and singer Kai Hoffman in collaboration with Broad Reach Records deserves a lot of credit for rapidly establishing it as an exciting jazz venue in North Kent and bringing such top artists to its fine performance space.

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And there were more miracles too, as in ‘pinch yourself, can this really be happening?’ What are the chances of getting both bassist Conor Chaplin and drummer James Maddren together these days in a tiny venue in London. European bandleaders know how just good these two are, so both are in constant demand, normally to be found criss-crossing the continent, playing with all sorts of bands at the highest level. But they’re both here. Tonight. In this small room in SW11.

To this fine rhythm pairing, add the jaw-droppingly magisterial saxophonist Julian Siegel, who has the consummate craft and gutsy presence of sound of a Chris Potter, but also the will’o’the’wisp elusiveness of a Tony Coe or a Stan Sulzmann. And they are all here for a good purpose: to bring the guitarist’s compositions to life, to be tested by his writing, to spark each other off. Maybe that’s the story. All freelance musicians face competing demands, but there are some events which go firmly into diaries because they are artistically and creatively worthwhile, the whole thing is happening at such a high level, these top musicians want to commit and put themselves to the test. It definitely felt like one of those evenings.

A highlight from the concert which definitely stays in the mind was the penultimate number “Noites no porao” (nights in the basement, probably best not to ask…) Hermeto-ish. Joyous. Smiles all round, right through the number. There’s a happy connection to the past which Nick Costley White mentions: it reminds him of Saturday lessons as a teenager with an inspiring teacher at the Centre for Young Musicians, just a mile or so away at Morley College.

And other, stronger impressions too: in particular how varied and interesting Nick Costley-White’s craft as a composer is. He gives harmonic interest and colour to everything he has written. Julian Siegel gives us the melody with persuasive shape and flow – and ridiculously clean tuning, and Nick Costley-White has instantly framed it, jewel-cased it with descriptive and unexpected harmony. That happened particularly in a new tune called ‘Material’.

One final thought : when music is so near, and is being invented, created, crafted, confected live in front of us….when we can witness quite how responsive, alive and in-the-moment musicians working at this level are….I start to ask a question: why would you want to be anywhere else? Viagogo, just take a hike. No I’m not paying £180 for a standing place in a vast stadium to hear Ed Sheeran. For a music-loving, listening audience, these are surely the ideal circumstances, and this might be the ideal place go out and listen to music.

(*) I tried to convey this when I reviewed one of the very first concerts at the venue in early 2023.

The post Nick Costley-White Quartet – Poncha’ album launch first appeared on UK Jazz News.

Effra contains its fair share of bluesy bop jams, many of which were written by Mullov-Abbado during lockdown: the album’s namesake – “The Effra Parade” – is an enjoyable tune that takes its name from a small road in Brixton. “It’s actually a really boring residential road”, its composer admitted, which is a stark contrast to the composition’s boisterous energy. As the opening performance of the night, this was the audience’s first taste of what proved itself to be a consistently very strong horn frontline: James Davison (trumpet and flugelhorn), Tom Smith (alto saxophone, bass clarinet) and Sam Rapley (tenor saxophone). This trio were to take up most of the soloing spotlight throughout the night, with a few standouts from Scott Chapman on drums, Liam Dunachie on piano and Mullov-Abbado himself.

Tracks such as “The Effra Parade”, the Jobim-inspired “Canção de Sobriedade”, and the as-yet unrecorded “Popcorn, Incense and Mary Jane” (so-called after the smells you may be assaulted with when walking through Brixton) were balanced out by gentler tunes like “Bridge” and “Rose”, dedicated to Mullov-Abbado’s wife and daughter respectively.

Following a dedication to the late Martin Hummel (+), founder of Ubuntu Music on which Effra is released, the band finished on a strong note with another hard bop tune, “Lock, Stock and Shuffle” from 2015’s New Ansonia. The closest the band came to truly channeling The Jazz Messengers, this was a fitting finale to a night of bops and ballads.

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Her sound, which at the beginning of her career was an attractive little girl voice, matured into an instrument for which the adjectives ‘ravishing’ and ‘glorious’ were invented. She had the ability to switch her tone from liquid honey to a throat-ripping rasp within a hemi-demi-semiquaver. Her expressive range across every mood and every tempo remains unmatched. Downhearted or celebratory, she never sounded less than sincere.

Excessive overclaim? Not when you’ve heard this live album recorded on June 29, 1967 at the Oakland Coliseum accompanied by the full Duke Ellington Orchestra with pianist Jimmy Jones substituting for the Duke. Impresario Norman Granz, who shaped Ella’s career, taped the concert and we hear seven selections covering emotions from poignant dejection to unfettered exuberance. You know that phrase ‘on song’? This performance defines it.

After drummer Sam Woodyard splashes every cymbal within reach, she launches her set with Scott and Satterwhite’s up-tempo The Moment of Truth, a brash piece ostensibly written to open Las Vegas acts. Her version overcomes the brashness by stoking the excitement with intense swing, her virtuosity leaving few syllables unembellished.

Edgar Sampson and Mitchell Parrish wrote Don’t Be That Way and Benny Goodman made it famous. Ella decelerates the tempo previously set on the indispensable Ella & Louis Again album she made with Louis Armstrong, and, with superhuman breath control, sustains tones for longer than any normal singer would regard as dangerous. Backed by Duke’s pugnacious brass and a driving backbeat from Woodyard, she weaves fanciful melodic variations. The audience can hardly restrain its applause before the final note.

You’ve Changed, a ballad of lost love by Carl Fischer and Bill Care, was closely associated with Billie Holiday, but Ella assumes possession of the lyric when, over the tight trio harmonies of the Ellington trombone section, she invests the lyric with fresh pathos, expertly controlling her vibrato as she unwraps her luscious contralto register.
In its time, Cole Porter must have horrified puritans with his witty ditty Let’s Do It, possibly the raunchiest of all list songs. Ella seldom sings a written note, recasting the melody over and over again in live performance, risking liberties few other singers would consider, let alone attempt. Her vocal micro-acrobatics on the phrase ‘even baby jellyfish do it’ defy death.

Ray Henderson and Mort Dixon wrote Bye, Bye Blackbird around 1926 and jazz musicians have jammed on it ever since. Ella calls it ‘one of the old tunes’ and, over five minutes of leaning behind the rhythm section’s beat, subjects the melody to an exhaustive workout through every register. She has the facility to divide even a single syllable into multiple parts, assigning to a different note to each. In the third chorus, she starts by scatting over Bob Cranshaw’s supportive bass, then winding up to an uninhibited knockdown and drag-out finale.

As Jimmy Jones caresses the keyboard for a delicate intro to Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s Alfie, Ella can be heard stage-whispering an instruction to the wings: ‘sexy lights here’. The mood is restrained and she produces an intimate ballad sheen to smooth the extremes of the melody’s choppy form (by way of an unexpected detour to You’re Nobody Till Somebody Loves You). When she sings “I believe in love, Alfie”, we believe her. And we believe in her.

Duke Ellington wrote In A Mellow Tone and Milt Gabler added lyrics making it, in effect, a song about a song. By the second chorus, over the band’s insistent riffs, Ella is immersed in the beat, scatting, slurring, scooping pitch and swinging ferociously reminding us of the Duke’s alto saxophone star, Johnny Hodges (Charlie Parker called him ‘Lily Pons’, at the time a well-known opera singer). She holds onto the final word ‘tone’ for a long time, like someone who’s loath to leave the party.

Eager to demonstrate she was abreast of changing fashion, Ella chooses Music To Watch The Girls Go By, a big number in the 60s written by Sid Ramin, in an arrangement that has her switching rhythms, even interpolating Happy Talk from the long-running musical, ‘South Pacific’.

In 1928, Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht wrote Mack The Knife for ‘The Threepenny Opera’. During the 60s, now equipped with lyrics in English, it became a monster hit for both Bobby Darin and Louis Armstrong with Ella following third. Third, maybe, but she embraced Mack and made it her own, graciously adding references to the first two performers (including a witty representation of a Satchmo growl). This version, packed with passion, bounce, regular half-step modulations and the Ellington band in rocking form, prompts Ella to discard any vestige of vocal inhibition and let rip for the concert’s big finale.

So far, so brilliant. But here’s the mystery.

Why did it take 75 years for such artistry to surface? Only recently, we’re told in Will Friedwald’s informative sleeve notes, the tape boxes were discovered languishing in the late Norman Granz’s effects. Why didn’t he release them? Were they forgotten? Did he think they weren’t up to scratch? Or did they simply get lost, lodged invisibly between a couple of Granz’s original Picasso etchings?

Whatever the reason (and it’s unlikely to be lack of quality), we’re grateful that this evidence was found to reinforce Crosby’s belief: “…Ella is the greatest”.

To which we mortals can only add the word ‘amen’.

TRACK LIST

1. The Moment Of Truth
2. Don’t Be That Way
3. You’ve Changed
4. Let’s Do It (Let’s Fall In Love)
5. Bye Bye Blackbird
6. Alfie (first Ella recording)
7. In A Mellow Tone
8. Music To Watch Girls By (first Ella recording)
9. Mack The Knife

‘The Moment of Truth – Ella At The Coliseum’ is released on 28 February 2025

The post Ella Fitzgerald – ‘The Moment of Truth – Ella At The Coliseum’ first appeared on UK Jazz News.

The Guadeloupean drummer’s Adjusting Quartet (with pianist Leonardo Montana, acoustic bassist Samuel F’Hima and tenor saxophonist Francesco Geminiani) performed compositions taken from his ‘Adjusting (2022)’ and ‘Tonbe Leve’ (2017) albums.

Although definitely influenced by modern straightahead jazz, the sound of the quartet is strongly informed by the Gwo Ka rhythms and accompanying dances of Guadeloupe’s African slave descendants, comprising: Toumblak (love and fertility); Kaladja (mourning); Woule (waltz danced with a scarf); Graj (work dance with movements suggesting cassava production); Padjanbel (work dance with movements similar to plantation slaves); Mende (carnival dance suggesting collective escape) and Lewoz (martial dance calling to memory plantation rebellion).

Arnaud Dolmen took up Gwo Ka studies from the age of five with legendary Guadeloupean musician Georges Troupé before proceeding to the Dante Agostini drum school in Toulouse for further drum and percussion instruction.

He has since gone on to record and collaborate prolifically with many groups and leaders including So, Franck Nicholas and Dédé Saint-Prix.

He has also performed around the world alongside Jacques Schwarz-Bart, Bojan Z, Olivier Ker Ourio, Alfredo Rodriguez, Mario Canonge, Naïssam Jalal, Laurent de Wilde, David Linx, Samy Thiébault and Jonathan Jurion, to mention a few. He has won several coveted jazz prizes. What’s more, the 39-year-old has garnered a meaty role in the Netflix series, ‘The Eddy’.

From the off, Dolmen gave his Ladbroke Hall audience a grand Gwo Ka master class with the highly entertaining ‘Graj ou Toumblak’, revealing Samuel F’hima’s deep and dependable pulse. The bass and drums tandem set up a solid launch pad for Montana and Geminiani to take improvisatory flight.

Montana nimbly navigated the melodic and harmonic complexities of ‘SQN’ (from the Adjusting album which featured accordionist Vincent Peirani), composed by Dolmen during the coronavirus pandemic. It was also an opportunity for a blazing display of bravura from the Brazilian-born, Paris-based pianist.  

The Adjusting Quartet’s contemplative and heavily syncopated ‘Cavernet’ (a portmanteau of ‘cave’ and ‘internet’ inspired by Dolmen’s study of Plato’s allegory of the cave), was one of the evening’s more spellbinding pieces.

It certainly drew attention to the evident sympatico between Montana and Dolmen as they traded exquisitely wrought extemporised musical phrases with each other.

The ultra-funky, ‘The Gap’, upped the groove factor several notches, as Geminiani’s tenor rode on top of the off-beats and accents of Dolmen’s tasteful drumming. The rendition also encompassed the Ka drum situated to the left of his kit, which Dolmen played with his heel.

‘Les Oubliees’, (The Forgotten Ones) was Dolmen’s ode to the musical ancestors.

This is a delightful beguine piece, reminiscent of the songs performed by Guadeloupean jazz piano stalwart, Alain Jean-Marie.

Kudos to Zhenya Strigalev for curating the excellent Friday Jazz series at Ladbroke Hall, a former car showroom transformed into what is arguably one of West London’s more polished performance spaces. Notable too is Chef Pollini and his staff, who offer exceptional dishes and service at the Sunbeam Theatre.

SET LIST

Graj ou Toumblak
SQN
Ka Sa Té Ké Bay
Expérience One

Cavernet
Ti Moun Gaya
The Gap
Les oubliées

Future concerts at Ladbroke Hall include Chilean pianist Jorge Vera on 28 February, Zhenya Strigalev on 14 March and NY pianist Micah Thomas on 11 April

The post Arnaud Dolmen’s Adjusting Quartet first appeared on UK Jazz News.

The suite was originally intended for the Irish National Ballet choreographed by Domy Reiter-Soffer who, Doherty wrote, “confessed to knowing nothing about jazz and I confessed to knowing less about ballet, so it was agreed that I would write a jazz dance project.” Doherty’s wry humour aside, it may be a blessing in disguise that funding fell through for the theatre performance, because making this music danceable may have compromised what’s a dazzling set of ballads, Latin, bop and the blues.

One trace of the suite’s jazz-dance origins is that Doherty was inspired to create a “boy meets girl” narrative across the tracks and assign a persona to each soloist. The opening track “Nordic Maiden” has Stewart on guitar as the girl, and is a romantic ballad with a lush Gil Evans / Miles Davis feel to the horn arrangements and a beautifully lyrical solo from Stewart.

“When Two People Meet” has Bobby Shew representing the boy, first on flugelhorn for a quartet performance with the rhythm section, interspersed with lush horn fills. What follows is a “dance” between the full band and guitar/trumpet counterpointing, the band twice discreetly withdrawing for two beautiful guitar/trumpet duets.

The personae on “Bertha D. Blooze” are a madame called Bertha (alto sax) and her pimp El Sponzo (tenor sax). None of that matters, though. This is essentially a rhythm-changes workout with scorching bebop solos on alto then tenor saxophone, delivering the pulse-raising excitement of earlier great saxophone battles on rhythm changes. I was particularly reminded of Sonny Stitt and Sonny Rollins on “The Eternal Triangle”, Bob Sheppard’s alto suggesting to me a softer-toned version of Stitt.

“El Sponzo” is a Latin number that starts with a clave riff on piano (a rare moment of exposure for the self-effacing Doherty, who assigns himself no persona or solos) and drums supplemented by congas and a shaker, before settling into a samba groove featuring Gordon Brisker’s tenor saxophone. Tenor and alto then trade fours, before Brisker leads out on the head before a punchy ending.

“Sergeant Bones” (persona, a Keystone cop type character) showcases Randy Aldcroft on trombone playing a major blues that briefly quotes Charlie Parker’s “Now’s the Time” – it’s fleshed out with some great horn fills, and more trading between alto and tenor sax.

Rounding off this most satisfying set is “Maybe It’s You”, which features cheerful ensemble playing on the head, and solos from trumpet, guitar and trombone. The horn arrangements are great, and include a tight unison passage towards the end.

All in all, it’s a corker of a session, recorded in just one day (mainly in single takes) after a rehearsal the day before – and despite its age, it sounds freshly minted. Congratulations to Livia for bringing it back to life – and (as with all other Livia re-releases since the label was reactivated in 2021) for wrapping this gift in beautiful packaging. The artwork on the front is a colourful homage to Henri Matisse’s Jazz art book (a vast improvement on the 1986 cassette cover of gold lettering on a plain black background), and the cardboard gatefold cover contains a 16-page booklet with photos, sleeve notes (both new and from the 1996 CD release), and bios for all the musicians.

In four words: great music beautifully packaged.

‘Spondance’ is released on 28 February 2025

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As fortune would have it, the set was captured and issued on vinyl, Live at Cafe Oto, to set the tone for what was to follow, albeit with a 5 year hiatus before Savage rediscovered her songwriting mojo and, with William Doyle as producer, City Slang issued A Common Turn, the first of her impressive three albums to date. 

At the Union Chapel, on the final night of her sell-out UK tour, Savage drew on all three with the most recent, You and I are Earth as the main focus of her finely honed set, inset with moments of cheerful spontaneity, in dialogue with her audience and her musicians.  

With Savage singing and switching between acoustic and electric guitars, her highly versatile touring band, the trio of drummer Joe Taylor, Peter Darlington on electric bass and Genevieve Dawson on keyboards and guitars, coalesced to bring a brightly uplifting feel to Savage’s repertoire. With impressively balanced sound in the lofty, architecturally imposing Union Chapel, they expanded the musical space to build a sensitive timbre around Savage’s deeply personal songs, elevated by the natural fall of her vocal range.

They were boosted on a couple of pacy numbers by songwriter Cubzoa (aka Jack Wolter) taking up a mean, power guitar and whose enchanting solo set had opened the concert with his high-pitched vocal style reminiscent of early Neil Young.

After the years in the wilderness, grappling with self-doubt and inner and relational challenges, Savage emerged with renewed strength which played out on-stage with a combination of a wicked, self-effacing sense of humour and an emotional connection with her audience. ‘Ask me a question,’ and they flew in from all over the venue. Asked ‘What’s the best gig you went to?’ She said that seeing songwriter / violinist Owen Pallett in a small club in Manchester changed her life.

Savage’s songs chart her personal journey through relationships, through a time when being single was best for her, and now to Ireland where she is based and has found love, as she happily announced. Her new album, You and I are Earth, ‘A love letter to a man and to Ireland’, blends her personal life with the sea, the coast and the landscapes of Donegal. In Talk To Me she resonantly sang, ‘When I cry I taste like the sea.’

Playing the Union Chapel was a ‘bucket list’ dream for Savage, sharing that she was close to tears of emotion just being there. In an interview she had said, ‘I cry three times a day’ and digging to the core of her practice, ‘I think there’s such power in gentleness, and there’s such power in being sensitive and being vulnerable.’ 

Her openness and engagement combined with her vocal poise and the exquisite musical arrangements of her band made this a night to remember.

Anna B Savage has dates in Ireland, then the US and Canada in May.

The post Anna B Savage first appeared on UK Jazz News.

The concept was to take well-loved standards which had all been originally written as instrumentals (though some have had words added subsequently) and to write demanding arrangements for this particular rhythm section and group of soloists. The idea worked for me, more than a recent gig I went to whose concept was to play little-known tunes by great composers … maybe they are little known for a reason!

The band opened with “Straight No Chaser”, after which Mark kindly explained that the arrangement included no less than 18 quotes from other Monk numbers. I felt ashamed – I think I caught three. Bebop imbued the arrangement and the solos throughout (and indeed much of the rest of the gig); “A Night in Tunisia” came next followed by “Round Midnight”, then a brief excursion into Herbie Hancock territory with “Cantaloupe Island”. “Ornithology” closed the first set; I was grateful for Mark’s explanation beforehand that “there are so many notes to fit in that the bars are 6/4 instead of 4/4”! For me the idea worked brilliantly and typified the originality and creativity which musicians of this calibre can deploy on a tune they must all have played literally hundreds of times before.

The second set opened with a fast version of “Desafinado” with James Davison on flugel. This was technically brilliant, especially the ensemble bebop version of the head as the outro, but I personally would rather have heard it played slower and the tune caressed – exactly as Alan Barnes did beautifully with “Take Five”, mainly accompanied just by Graham Harvey. “Skylark” and Kenny Barron’s “Voyage” followed, and the set closed with a rip-roaring “St Thomas”, with Mark’s trombone doing a great job of imitating the hooter of the steamer entering the island’s harbour.

Alan Barnes unselfishly asked Mark Nightingale to announce most of the tunes, which he did with typical wit and erudition, but took over the mike himself occasionally to ensure that the audience appreciated Mark’s arrangements. They clearly did, and also his remarkable command of his instrument, surely unmatched in this country. Alan Barnes is of course equally a master of the alto sax; it gave me enormous pleasure to see the much younger James Davison (ex-NYJO, like Mark) holding his own in the front line with these two maestros.

Among the many impressive things about the band was the way they combined the ability to sight-read ferociously demanding brand-new arrangements and solo creatively when asked to do so. I found myself wondering, “What is the equivalent situation for equally outstanding musicians working exclusively in western classical music?” I’m sure they must have equally enjoyable musical experiences – but I struggle to see how they can equate to the extraordinary range of abilities on show with an improvising band like this one. A great evening of marvellous music by wonderful musicians to an appreciative full house. Please keep doing it, we love it.

Personnel

Alan Barnes alto sax
Mark Nightingale trombone & all arrangements
James Davison trumpet & flugelhorn
Graham Harvey piano
Jeremy Brown double bass
Ian Thomas drums

The post Mark Nightingale – Alan Barnes Sextet first appeared on UK Jazz News.

Tom, of course, isn’t the first musician to draw inspiration from life in a big city. Elgar, Gershwin, Bernstein and others have all captured its bustle and excitement, as well as the potential for poignancy and isolation which can also be part of the urban experience. In jazz, the Ellington-Strayhorn partnership translated their impressions of place into the sound pictures of their Far East Suite.

Ellington would often surprise his public with new compositions which transcended the usual limitations and expectations of big-band writing, and from the first few bars of the title track of ‘A Year in the Life’, Tom lets us know that he too won’t be bound by anything predictably ‘jazz’. It becomes clear that the music will draw on many styles and genres. Our journey through his cityscape starts with nicely scored sax and brass voicings, reflective and haunting, followed by beautifully judged acoustic guitar and piano work (Jamie McCredie and Will Barry) before we’re fully up and running. Even then, the force of this big band’s blowers is patiently held back to past the 3-minute mark. The rest of the chart is full of ebbs, flows and space before building to a satisfying coda, capped by Tom Walsh’s fabulous lead trumpet.

This is a generous album, 9 tracks coming in at around 70 minutes, and so I’ll pick out just a few other highlights. Also in the press release for this debut album, Tom talks of his admiration for Pat Metheny and on ‘Breathe’ (YouTube below) , this influence is superbly and respectfully acknowledged with lyrical lines of melody and improvisation set against lovely block chords in the brass and saxes. Great writing – terrific playing.

‘Atlas’ is all tone and texture, with the ensemble passages setting the scene for Freddie Gavita’s wonderful trumpet solo. The late Kenny Wheeler would, I’m sure, be delighted to know that his legacy is secure and being taken to new heights by such a consummate master of the instrument. ‘Aplomb’ motors along effortlessly and we’re left in no doubt that this band can also really swing. From the outset, ‘Somewhere Far From Here’ is moving ever forward as it deploys jazz waltz tempos interwoven with clever bridge sections to take us on a scenic journey towards a celebratory, life-affirming destination.

Many of my favourite instrumental pieces are those which tell a story or describe a scene (often referred to as ‘programme music’ in classical music circles). In jazz and light classical, as well as the Ellington, the place-linked pieces on Gerry Mulligan’s The Concert Jazz Band ‘63 album come to mind, along with John Williams’s Holland Walk, written for the National Youth Jazz Orchestra in the early 1970s and indeed, some of Robert Farnon’s orchestral sketches of London in the 1950s – such evocations can be so skilfully vivid, that suddenly, you’re there! A Year in the Life is a very welcome and worthy addition to this formidable collection.

A Year in the Life is released today 21 February 2025

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