King Phoenix is George Cooper's Bristol-based Jazz Defenders' new album. Recorded in June and July last year and released on Haggis Records, the ten tracks (all written by Cooper with the exception of a couple of co-written numbers) occupy soul-jazz territory with a touch of Latin and a silver screen filmic quality (think 60s Cote d'Azur crime caper colliding with a spaghetti western). The core quintet (piano, bass, drums) plus guests embrace the classic (Hammond) organ sound, Crusaders' groove, Brubeckian flourishes, a hint of Latin and a touch of Ramsey Lewis.
Ten tracks spanning little more than thirty seven minutes could be thought of as tasters, their purpose being to tempt the audiophile to get up out of that chair and boogie on down to her/his local soul-jazz joint to hear - and dance to - the band up close. Dance? Yes, the 'Acid Jazz' scene, all of forty years ago, attracted a dance crowd and evidently Cooper's outfit holds the same appeal. The contributions of vocalists/rappers Doc Brown, Herbal T and Leigh Coleman add variation, whereas John Pearce's violin and Atholl Ransome's flute are somewhat at odds with the promise of twenty first century bop.
The Jazz Defenders on record (CD, vinyl, vinyl 45) are a very different proposition to the band recently heard in concert. Live, it was hard-hitting, pulsating bop, on record, less so, although no less listenable. Buy the album, catch them live. Russell
The Jazz Defenders' new album King Phoenix is available from Haggis Records (HRCD006).
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