CD Review Taupe

Adam Stapleford (drums), Jamie Stockbridge (alto saxophone) & Mike Parr-Burman (guitar)

(Review by Russell).

Mammatus, the opening track of five on Taupe’s eponymous release, begins with a guess-where-this-is-going series of bass-end notes from Mike Parr-Burman’s guitar. Drummer Adam Stapleford hides a crunching snare under a canopy of splashing cymbals as Jamie Stockbridge’s alto emerges from the dense undergrowth blinking into the daylight, an insistent riff taking command. Carnival’s Quarrel  takes a tightly loose guitar intro into a rasping alto blowout, Coupling requires a First Degree in Counting such is its quirky time signature! Clattering drums and Salt Peanuts-like tooting suggest an element of fun is present in the trio’s collective thinking.

The penultimate track - Lash - is the one. This is impressive stuff - the writing and the playing. Stockbridge’s urgent alto fires-up guitar and drums in a hair-raising joyride to who knows where, taking corners at speed for the thrill of it. Out of breath, alto takes it down, the others having none of it, foot on the accelerator and off they go again! The closing number - Beads - was surely composed aboard the eerie Marie Celeste. Shrouded in a fog, drifting, dissolving into silence. Taupe is one of the releases of 2014. The trio describe themselves as Newcastle’s premier power jazz commando team. On this evidence they could well out gun the opposition in the power trio stakes. Highly recommended. Check out Taupe at http://taupe.bandcamp.com.

Russell.