CD Review: Jamie Taylor's Outside Line Quartet - Introducing Outside Line

Jamie Taylor (gtr); Matt Anderson (ten); Garry Jackson (bs); Dave Walsh (dms).

A meandering start had me groaning and saying to myself "This is going to be one of those Scandinavian epics where it takes three days to get past the first 8 bars." Seemingly, I read, producer Sam Hobbs underscores the collective improvisation with otherworldly sounds of uncertain origin!
However, I should have known better than to almost write it off after a few bars! These guys are from Yorkshire which is almost as good as being from Tyneside and, as the CD progressed, I realised there were no Trolls aboard.

It's a superb blend of guitar and tenor. Compatible lines either in unison, harmonically apart or contrapuntally  intertwined - they just gel..

The six tracks are split into two suites, both composed by Jamie Taylor, - Someone New Suite and Three Colours: Blues Suite. Both are welcome additions to the jazz repertoire and display the two frontliner's abilities admirably. My personal preference is for the latter suite but that is only because it has an earthier feel about it with gutsier playing from both Taylor and Anderson. Mose Allison sprung to mind as an influence and Jimmy Giuffre too. Once you get past the ethereal beginning of the first suite, it's plain sailing although not always on a tranquil sea! The combination of Anderson and Taylor is a most fruitful one. They bring to mind '50s Blue Note sessions but with a contemporary rhythm section. Jackson and Walsh make no attempt to disguise the fact that they, like the two men out front, are jazz people of today.

Canon For Cannon has all four swinging in a boppy Adderley mode. It's a clever arrangement. On Always Rising we go into 5/4 and Jackson brings Dig Doug in for Taylor to dig deep into his seemingly infinitesimal bag of solo-ology.  Anderson's store is also well stocked.

Jamie Taylor Quartet - Outside Line. Available on GLP039.

Lance.