Having been mightily impressed by Mr Pope’s 2023 album, Mixed With Glass, I made a point of booking to see one of the gigs at the Star and Shadow cinema where this album was recorded back in April. And here we have Citrinitas, only six months after the recording dates with the same musicians on the bandstand as for the previous album.
First up is Free
Spirit which opens with a New
Orleans strut and slips and slides its way through the blues, loudly and
declamatory. The shadow of Charles Mingus hangs over this one but in a good
way. There are worse things for a bassist/composer than to be compared to Mingus.
Shadow Work gives
a nod to Fables of Faubus in its
opening few bars of melancholy march but develops into something altogether
more free and disconnected as Pope invites us to follow him into his world of
squeaks in the darkness before we climb back up for a series of rolling
wrestling matches with furious blowing from Stockbridge on baritone.
A Procession of Heads sees
the bass pushed to the fore and the drums lower in the mix. It’s almost a duet
between bass and baritone with MacCalman throwing in the occasional comment from
the Greek chorus. Pope gives us a bowed, occasionally abrasive, solo whilst the
others dance lightly around him.
World Dancer is a tumult of melodies born, shadowed, developed and abandoned as new ideas come to bear. We dive into a tunnel of ideas, the tune is first anchored by Pope but then he sets off on runs of his own and the melody starts to flow as MacCalman leads the call and the others answer her before Hardy’s trumpet flies out of the melee. It’s exciting stuff and having played it once I had to flick back and hear it again from the start.
Hiba, which follows, gives us a long, eastern flavoured melody line to follow over Johnny Hunter’s rattling drums. A frantic solo from Pope over subtle droning from the others that sounds like it could be electronica ends as he counts the band back in and MacCalman, this time on clarinet, blows a piercing swooping solo line.
Much of Quantum Stepper sounds
like music for modern dance with an extended section suggesting free, flowing, moves and hot stepping, though how the choreographers would deal with the free
section in the middle is beyond me.
Closer, ShiryO opens
with a wild rampage, the tenor manages to cut through the madness. It’s another
album highlight that requires the listener to just hang on until it all breaks
down for a bold and compelling unaccompanied
tenor solo. Storm clouds develop in the background which grows into rolling
thunder from the rhythm section behind long mournful sweeps from the front
line.
This is another really strong album from Pope and friends
and all credit goes to him and Wesley Stephenson for this album. It’s another
high point for jazz in the north east and for the NEWJAiM (New Jazz and Improvised Music Recordings) label.
It’s out now and is available through Bandcamp. Dave Sayer
No comments :
Post a Comment