This is a new guitarist/pianist led band out of the Leeds College of Music and this is their first album. The interweb points to similarly led ensembles the Pat Metheny Group (Metheny/Lyle Mays) and the Impossible Gentlemen (Mike Walker/ Gwilym Simcock) as influences and you can see where the interweb is coming from with that. There is a similar widescreen, panoramic vision and new music that blends jazz with hints of prog-rock, third-stream, some smooth soul (Ruby) and that point where the Doobie Brothers meet Steely Dan. (I like Steely Dan and the Doobie Brothers; it’s not intended as a negative comment).
Bland and Gunter wrote the music between them and its given extra colour
by Dom Pusey’s sax on most tracks, (Iain Dixon did the same for the Impossible
Gentlemen) whilst the bass of Jack Tustin provides the propellant when extra
drive is needed, as on You Can’t Write
Tears. Kirkstall Abbey is a fine piece of jazz fusion which allows both
leaders to step forward and solo, whilst their influences can be heard they are
both strong players; the track closes with a stomping, intimidating, full band
section with Pusey’s tenor and bass clarinet to the fore showing that there is
some fury mixed in with the pastoral.
They can do lyrical as well; L’Iseran
(named after an Alpine pass, fact lovers) is a feature, first for Bland’s
elegant piano solo which surrenders to some swooping sax before Gunter’s spiky
guitar solo; Tustin’s bass is in there as well, keeping it all rooted. At the
other end of the spectrum is Gaudi’s
Blues, which is a bit more down and dirty with a driving stabbing solo from
Gunter over a loping groove that breaks into a Blue Note r’n’b swing with some
thumping piano from Bland around which Pusey wraps some aggressive tenor.
The band rolls into Il Ragno Della
Tomba on the back of Tustin’s acoustic bass and the bassman gets to shine
with a dancing solo to which Bland adds delicate piano runs; subdued hand drums
from Galli add extra depth. Gunter adds another sweeping and swooping solo
before Bland’s intricate solo fills the middle section of the piece. Pusey’s
soprano solo is a thing of rare beauty. A very spare Outro sees Bland playing the silences as much as the notes as a
dramatic, stumbling piano takes us to the close.
I like this album a lot, but then again the influences cited elsewhere
are firm favourites here at Sayer Towers. Having said that, the leader’s
imaginations transcend these influences to create a strong imaginative album on
its own merits.
The Marlbank website HERE has information about the band, a couple of videos and even a video from the Impossible Gentlemen, all of which are worth your time. Dave Sayer
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