Well, this is a canny band. Drummer Glassby has crowd-funded the creation of this album, for which he has written all the music. Also on board is last year’s Young Jazz Musician winner, Ewan Hastie on bass. No lesser an authority than Tommy Smith said of him, “Ewan Hastie is the best bass soloist I’ve heard at his age … ever!” Pete Johnstone has worked as a duo with Tommy Smith and in his Coltrane tribute quartet and Kilner hails from Aberdeen by way of Birmingham and gets points for this performance of The Peacocks on YouTube.
Despite the title, this
album seems to be more about history than travel. It encompasses a range of
styles from the immediate post-bop era, going in and out, and coming right up
to date. There are hints of other artists and even a nod at one point to Tommy
Smith’s Christmas album in a quick blow of We
Three Kings. But it’s also a ‘whole
is greater than the sum of its parts’ album.
The first piece, Backwards, acts as an overture and
covers a lot of ground (maybe it is about travel) from its imposing hint of
Coltrane opening notes, sudden change of direction into a Monk-esque solo and
then a contemplative tenor solo underpinned by solid bass playing. It’s all
positive vibes as the band join in, perhaps celebrating having got the project
off the ground.
Repeated listens to the
album led Here, There and Everywhere becoming
an early favourite. Driven by bass and piano, it powers along, enthusiastically
rather than energetically. I think the word rollicking would be appropriate if
we are using the word rollicking these days. I think we are! There’s much joy
to be had from this tune, Kilner builds a lovely solo from single notes to a
longer flowing piece.
By way of contrast, And Again is a plaintiff elegant
contemplation, perhaps on roads long travelled and long gone. After a solo from
Kilner to open the piece and establish the mood, there’s several minutes of
beautiful, intricate piano trio playing. Apparently, Fergus McCreadie, (very
well liked in this house), was the pianist on Glassby’s last album so for Pete
Johnstone, they are some very big boots to fill. He does so admirably supported
by rolling fills from Glassby and subtle support from Hastie. Kilner maintains
the melancholia when he rejoins for the closing section.
The
Path Ahead seems unable to decide if it’s a
continuation of And Again or if it’s
a piece of rolling funk as it slips between the two genres. A bass solo from
Hastie underpinned by sparse drums and occasional piano interjections decides
the answer as neither. Hastie worked with Glassby on his last album Eclipse and the two, along with
Johnstone from a hugely impress rhythm section. Kilner’s sax solo is a soaring
interweaving thing turning itself inside out before Glassby calls another
change of mood. And the closing bars straddle and build on the contradiction
inherent in the opening section of the tune as if to says that it’s neither and
both of what was suggested at the start.
Title track, Travels, is a big booming beast with
delicate interludes including that nod to We
Three Kings. Again that rhythm section does most of the hard (and
rollicking again) yards suggesting to me that a piano trio album is a logical
next step. Kilner joins in later with some full bodied blowing. This would be
great to hear live in a small room.
Closer, Familiar Roads, builds slowly from a
gentle piano trio with a metronome tick by Glassby and Hastie’s questioning,
rolling bass to a big-screen, Kamasi Washington-esque bravura piece, a huge,
rolling, natural storm with a choir over the band and Pete Johnstone given the
starring role playing under and around the wall of sound. It falls away into a
long piano coda that closes out the album.
This album succeeds on
several fronts; the strength of the composing and arrangements; the energy and
intelligence of the players; the fact that the length of the tunes allows space
for creativity to flourish.
This is a group I’d like
to see live, if that were possible. I suspect they’ve joined up for this album
and will be too busy exploring their own disparate interests to carry this
forward. There are no forthcoming gigs listed on the richardglassby.com
website which contains some more information about Richard’s career so far but
could do with some updating.
Travels
is
available from today (April 21) on Bandcamp as a CD, a download and on
streaming platforms. Dave Sayer
No comments :
Post a Comment