Leo
Appleyard (guitar), Duncan Eagles (tenor sax), Neil Yates
(trumpet/flugelhorn), Max Luthert (bass), Eric Ford
(drums/percussion).
(Review
by Hugh C).
Pembroke
Road is the début album by twenty-five year old London-based
guitarist Leo Appleyard. The album is a testament to the strength of
enduring musical relationships. Appleyard states: “I have played
in bands with Duncan Eagles and Max Luthert for more of my life than
I haven't”.
These
musicians have well-honed habits of working together and loose
tempos, rapid transitions of mood and tricky time signatures become
as natural as breathing.
Leo Appleyard is marked out as a musician by his deep understanding
and care about sound. He was given his first mixing desk at the age
of fourteen – just a year and a half after he started the guitar
and he has been working as a sound engineer professionally since the
age of 17. This experience enables
him to integrate electronic effects into his sound, but at the same
time fully exploit the resonances of the hollow-bodied guitar he
invariably uses.
There
are nine tracks on the album – coming in at just over 52 minutes in
total. The Homeless
Wizard is
named after one of Appleyard's friends (not in the band) and features
drummer/percussionist Eric Ford. Wales-based Neil Yard
(trumpet/flugelhorn) guests on the album on three tracks, including
the second, Mass.
This has a deliberate filmic quality and in places has a folky feel,
reflecting Yates' talent in that genre. The
Cleaver features
the paired lyrical tones of Yates' trumpet and Eagles' sax.
Anywhere South
started as an exercise on Coltrane's 'Giant Steps' and has
contrasting sections of fast and energetic forward motion and repose.
Mantra contains
some of the most atmospheric material on the album and incorporates
different styles – a blues element, a Bach chorale and a modal
vamp. Appleyard's musical mantra is to combine different elements,
forging them into one.
The
album was recorded in StudioOwz in the middle of rural Pembrokeshire.
The studio was set up by a friend of Appleyard's and the sense of
space and isolation, together with the rural surroundings, captured
Appleyard's imagination. The title track Pembroke
Road (sixth
on the album) was actually composed after a visit to the studio
(accessed by a dusty off-the-grid track) by Appleyard five years
before he returned with the other musicians and eight more
compositions. Intro
to a Waltz features
a sombre bass solo from Max Luthert before the revelation of the
happy tune in Walsio.
The
final track I
Remember is
a different take by Appleyard on a standard by Victor Schertzinger.
This album comes with the
imprimatur of the F-IRE label, which to the older jazzer can have
slightly scary connotations! There is however nothing scary about
this album. It is beautifully melodic throughout and elegantly
demonstrates the musicianship of all participants. The sensitive
interplay of the five musicians on the album is a delight.
Pembroke
Road is released on Monday
November 10 (Today).
CD
Launch Gig: November 16 (12am), EFG London Jazz Festival, Pizza
Express, Dean Street
Pembroke
Road is on the F-IRE Label No. F-IRE CD75
Currently listed tour dates
feature nowhere North of Birmingham.
Hugh.
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