As this album has been nominated for the Mercury Prize (as the traditional token jazz album), I thought I’d have another listen to it and pass on my thoughts. Jazz is, since Ezra Collective walked away with the Prize in 2023, no longer as marginal as it once was and the days when a judge could happily declare that he knew nothing about jazz seem to be over. The Mercury does, however, remain its random element and no doubt many people in Newcastle's Utilata Arena on the big day will be rooting for local lad Sam Fender.
The Mercury nod is being celebrated
with the re-release of the album on green marble (vinyl, not the metamorphic
rock). It garnered some good reviews when it came out and it has 4½ stars on
Amazon, from only one rating and two reviews, (one of which is from Joe’s
cousin). He’s also been up to the North
East a few times which always ensures extra points in my book, and to curry
local favour even further, one of the tracks is called Newcastle Full Feel, a slowly rolling, stately blues, decorated
with all sorts of runs and flourishes, which shows off some Fats Waller genes.
For people who like that sort of thing, there’s also a joyful Fats Waller
cover, Squeeze Me, later on the
album.
Cutting
through the hype we have here a very good album which ranges far and wide
across jazz history pulling in and shaping influences, almost as if it is a
series of exercises for an educational film. That opinion is strengthened by
the fact that we get 13 tracks in only 36 minutes and undermined because some
of the tracks flow on into others creating more of a suite of movements. This
means that the quiet reflective elegance of 100
Years of Bill & Lil rolls into a
clattering drum solo on Some Jesson and
then on into the percussive swinging Curveball
but I’m sure we’re all big enough to live with the disruption. Curveball itself is roistering bebop
with ragtime flourishes, a combination that shouldn’t work but does here,
seamlessly, and it’s followed by another switch back to something more
contemplative for Breuddwyd Cariad’s mix
of flowing runs and heavy rhythmic punctuation. Another volte face takes us to
the title track which is a high-stepping rag that sounds like it was recorded
in black and white.
The
quality of the playing from all of the trio holds this together as a single
work and the production is bright and lively, demanding attention. It’s a
positive, uplifting album whilst still being dense with musicality, rich and
rewarding.
Finally,
he gets another point for the courage to wear a paisley anorak for the cover
photo; a garment the like of which I haven’t seen since being forced to wear
one as a child in the sixties.
The
Mercury Prize is awarded on October 16 at the Utilata Arena.
Tickets are still available and it is also on BBC4 from 9:30.
The
full list of contenders are:-
CMAT – ‘Euro-Country’
Emma-Jean Thackray – ‘Weirdo’
FKA Twigs – ‘Eusexua’
Fontaines D.C. – ‘Romance’
Jacob Alon – ‘In Limerence’
Joe Webb – ‘Hamstrings &
Hurricanes’
Martin Carthy – ‘Transform Me Then Into
A Fish’
Pa Salieu – ‘Afrikan Alien’
PinkPantheress – ‘Fancy That’
Pulp – ‘More’
Sam Fender – ‘People Watching’
Wolf Alice – ‘The Clearing’
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