Tom Thorp (saxophones & bass clarinet), Richard Jones (Fender Rhodes), Thomas Dibb (guitar), Gavin Barras (bass guitar) & Johnny Hunter (drums) + Mark Lewis (percussion, track 3)
(Review by Russell)
Two Meanings opens Mercury’s album Sea Speak with Tom Thorp’s extended, ethereal tenor saxophone introduction. There is little movement for five minutes, or thereabouts, until Richard Jones’ Fender Rhodes awakens, similarly bassist Gavin Barras slowly but surely enters the conversation. Drummer Johnny Hunter takes the bull by the horns with an energetic workout before the tune dives into the deep from whence it came.
Seven tunes, the second, the eponymous Sea Speak, emerges from the shallows with the soprano playing Tom Thorp soon shrouded in a Fender mist. Bass and drums navigate a steady course until all are submerged once more. It is on soprano that bandleader Thorp stretches out on Winterbrook, an all-too-brief Scatter precedes Thorp’s bass clarinet on Atlas with Thomas Dibb playing a considered, understated solo encouraged all the way by Hunter’s sparkling kit work, as is Thorp having switched to soprano.
Thorp impresses on tenor on the penultimate, medium tempo track – Hanging Gardens – which just about sums up the album: subtle, restrained groove.
All compositions are by Thorp with the exception of the closing track – Phalanx – which is a three-way collaboration between Thorp, Dibb and Jones. It is an all together different affair – a lively, pulsating number with Thorp obliged to ‘push the envelope’ on tenor.
Russell.
Sea Speak by Mercury is available at: www.mercurymanchester.co.uk
Mercury will be touring Sea Speak into 2017 with a date at the Jazz Café, Newcastle on Friday 25 November.
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