Monthly Archives: May 2010

Disc of the day: 24-05-10

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Philip Clouts Quartet: Sennen Cove (Point Records PCD025)
As someone who spent a lot of time in South Africa, probably more than Clouts, who was born there, I still respond to that African attitude to jazz that has always permeated his piano playing. He makes jazz that is happy to cross-pollenate with other world musics, whether African or Latin, and jazz that embraces good times while still taking its art seriously.

Now living on the coast of South West England and taking inspiration from his surroundings, which might not match the Cape’s grandeur but do at least have surfers off-shore, Clouts has written lots of new songs played here by the pianist with Carlos Lopez-Real on saxophones, Alex Keen on bass and Paul Cavaciuti on drums.

The tunes wear their complexities lightly, and they are naturals for improvisation. The Latin kick-beat of Aqua Glide really does call to mind the exhilaration of catching a wave, while Deco features Carlos-Real digging deep. Quicksilver has a certain funkiness with Cavaciuti’s cowbell pulse again adding a Latin feel.

The title track flows and eddies gracefully, while Clouts saves his South African groove for the final tune, Commotion in C.

There is a slightly unfinished feel to this recording, and I have a hunch it is all going to sound more punchy and fully-formed in performance.

The band is touring on the back of this release and plays Teignmouth’s Carlton Theatre on 27 May, Colchester Arts Centre on 6 June, launches the CD at Rich Mix Arts Centre in London on 7 June, and adds Didcot’s Cornerstone Arts Centre and Queens Park Arts Centre in Aylesbury later in June.

Russ’s pic of the week: 24-05-10

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Here is electric bassist Steve Swallow from the gig with Gwilym Simcock, Mike Walker and Adam Nussbaum at the CBSO Centre on Saturday. It’s Russ Escritt’s choice for his pic of the week.

Russ has hundreds more like this – in fact when it comes to jazz musicians, if they’ve played in Birmingham he has probably taken their picture. And they are all being loaded onto Russ’s new website which is here. It’s a work in progress as Russ consolidates the content from his previous two sites and moves it all to the new one but there is already a great deal to look at. And now there is the added bonus that you can search for a particular musician. Russ also has available three books of his photographs: two of general pictures and one dedicated to the legendary great grandaddy of Birmingham jazz, Andy Hamilton. Go to the ABOUT section of the site for more details.

Concert review: Gwilym Simcock Quartet

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Mike Walker at the CBSO Centre yesterday (Picture: Russ Escritt)

CBSO Centre, Birmingham UK
22-05-10
Gwilym Simcock might have been the instigator, but if the composing credits fell mainly to the two British players – the other was guitarist Mike Walker – the stature of the US rhythm team – Steve Swallow on bass, Adam Nussbaum on drums – meant this was very much a band of equals.

I’m alway intrigued by at what point in a gig the band really takes flight and moves from giving a merely pleasing performance to one that will live long in the memory and always bringing a warm smile . If we’re lucky it’s in the third or fourth tune, but sometimes, this being the unpredictable world of jazz, it never happens at all, not on that night, not at the gig we’re at, anyway.

For me, this band took flight in Clockmaker, Mike Walker’s rich composition which, like all his pieces, sound both immensely complicated and yet really easy for the listener to assimilate and to enjoy. It was the opening piece of the concert, and our first taste of what four exceptional and open jazz musicians sound like when they are both challenging themselves and having a damn fine time.

Steve Swallow’s knees bent as he focussed in hard on the music on the page, Nussbaum kept eye contact with Simcock and Walker as the tune flowed from improvisation to improvisation, always in a developmental way, never merely processional. And the two younger British men just looked so pleased to be here and making music together with these older Americans.

It was Swallow’s Real Book album, in which he wrote new tunes based on the chord sequences of standards, that Simcock said inspired his You Won’t Be Around To See It, based on Softly (As In A Morning Sunrise). On a balmy night this raised the temperature further, with Nussbaum showing his full volume range, from a snare thwacked with his considerable might, to a cymbal stroked with fingertips.

After the unoriginally titled Gwil’s Tune, it was time for two more Walker compositions, the intricate and explosive Laugh Lines, and the richly lyrical and quietly climactic When You Hold Her. Again, these are such rich compositions, full of melody and emotion and fully explored by the band.

The Americans provided a token tune each in the second half, but for the most part they seemed really delighted for Simcock and Walker to share the writing and playing limelight. Walker’s Wallenda’s Last Stand was gorgeous, with that slightly Latin feel he sometimes favours, and Simcock’s Plainsong was a sublime encore.

A guitar and piano frontline is not the easiest line-up to manage. Those of us who saw the Pat Metheny/Brad Mehldau band in Symphony Hall a few years ago will know that even for two musicians of such standing, it is by no means plain sailing. There are icebergs lurking dangerously out there. Pat and Brad could learn a lot from Gwil and Mike. They never got in each other’s way, neither did they inhibit each others’ natural style.

And, in a world where some jazz musicians can still be a little too cool, what a joy to be witness to the clear warmth and mutual respect of all the musicians on the stage.

This feels like the start of something special and I was pleased to see the recording mics out last night. I haven’t been as excited by an Anglo-American project since I first heard Julian Siegel with Greg Cohen and Joey Baron. Let’s hope it becomes more than a one-tour stand.

The band is going on to play around Europe but if you are within driving distance of either Leicester (Embrace Arts Centre tonight) or London (Ronnie Scott’s tomorrow) – so, anywhere on the mainland, in other words – I’d urge you to get along. It’s the real deal.

Simcock heads up the week ahead

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Of the many young jazz players who have emerged from UK music schools in the first decade of this century, surely a contender for brightest and highest shooting star must go to pianist Gwilym Simcock.

The young Welshman took his time before leading his own bands and making his own records. Having followed the classical route and an education at Chetham’s in Manchester, he took the fork marked jazz and went on to the Royal Academy to study with John Taylor and Nikki Iles among others.

Meanwhile, out on the road with Acoustic Triangle and Bill Bruford’s Earthworks, and getting picked for bigger ensembles peopled by much more experienced players, like that of Kenny Wheeler, he had the heads of musicians like Lee Konitz turning to take note as easily as he was attracting the rapt attention of audiences.

He has kept his crossover skills in shape by composing a piano concerto and a horn sonata among other commissions.

His most recent recording, Blues Vignette, is a double disc, one featuring his trio, the other of solo piano and piano/cello duet.

So, one might have expected his appearance on Saturday evening at the CBSO Centre in Birmingham to be with this trio. But Simcock keeps moving on.

The Gwilym Simcock Quartet is a perfectly balanced transatlantic band with Manchester-based guitarist Mike Walker joining the pianist, together with, from the US, electric bassist Steve Swallow and drummer Adam Nussbaum.

They play the first date of a European tour in Southampton tomorrow night and after Birmingham they take in Ronnie Scott’s in London, followed by gigs in Norway, Austria and Hungary.

Who knows what we can expect, but with these four exceptional musicians on stage it is bound to be exciting. Tickets (£14) for this Birmingham Jazz gig are available from thsh.co.uk or on 0121 780 3333. It starts at 8pm. More information at www.birminghamjazz.co.uk

Other gigs this week:

Sunday: The Midland Youth Jazz Orchestra have a very special guest in the form of ex-Buddy Rich Band baritone saxophonist Jay Craig for their lunchtime session at the Westley Hotel, Acocks Green, starting at 12.30pm. Tickets cost £9 on the door, and you can find out more about MYJO at, strangely, andyderrickjazzquartet.com/myjoblog

On Sunday evening South African vocalist Esther Miller takes her quintet, which includes trumpeter Steve Waterman, into The Chapel in Stratford-upon-Avon. It’s the latest in the regular Sunday slots of Stratford Jazz, it starts at 8pm, tickets are £10 and there is more at www.stratfordjazz.org.uk

Wednesday: The last Wednesday of the month means it must be Jazz Club at the Rainbow in Digbeth. This time the band is led by London-based guitarist Jonathan Bratoeff and it comprises Birmingham Conservatoire grad Mark Hanslip on tenor saxophone, Tom Mason on bass and the ubiquitous James Maddren on drums. The Quartet has a new CD out on F-IRE Records, called Mindscapes, and doubtless you will be able to hear what is all sounds like live at this Birmingham Jazz gig. The band goes on at 9pm and entrance is £4. More at www.birminghamjazz.co.uk

Disc of the day: 19-05-10

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Terje Rypdal: Crime Scene (ECM 273 3215)
The Norwegian guitarist likes writing on a grander scale these days, and has done a number of pieces with orchestra or chamber ensemble. This time it’s the Bergen Big Band, but he still sets his small group at its heart: Palle Mikkelborg on trumpet, Stale Storlokken on Hammond B3 and Paolo Vinaccia on drums.

While his Vossabrygg album was dedicated to Miles Davis and Bitches Brew, this one is, apparently, strongly influenced in tribute to John Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders. There is certainly an intensity to it and a strong, slow attempt at a spiritual depth. But I am not sure it quite achieves that. Rypdal’s rock tendencies have always for me mixed too much flash in with the attempt at something deeper, and he never quite manages what, for example, John McLaughlin are even Carlos Santana, have achieved in that area.

This piece, in its film dialogue samples and title, seems similar in intention to John Zorn’s Big Gundown, though here, too, it falls short in comparison, preferring bombast to really insidious danger. Or perhaps nobody can sound quite as dangerous as Zorn.

There is however, some strong playing, especially from Supersilent’s Storlokken. The timbres in the big band – Rypdal was particularly taken at the opportunity to use three bass clarinets – are rich but all too often the music risks coming across as muddy. The rock contingent will like it, though.