This is not a record you
play twice in a row because the first time was so relaxing. It really is a
Wickes’ worth of kitchen sinks with a cast of thousands all firing on full fury
to be heard. To give you an idea of how routine and middle of the road it is I
can only say that it sits at that juncture of post war big band jazz, Black
Sabbath’s Paranoid, a nod towards
Billy Strayhorn’s Blood Count, Slaughter
on 10th Avenue, a Basie revival (not least in the cover image),
a bit of late evening torch song, and everything else such that you have to lie
down in a darkened room rather than indulge yourself in a repeat play. That’s
not to say that it doesn’t reward repeated listening, because it does. It’s
dynamic, exciting stuff, played with the restraint of a band that sounds like
they’ve been given an hour to live and are going to leave a full-blooded,
big-boots-on-the-ground legacy. It can flow from moments of high drama, through
furious squabbling to sweeping, flowing moments that crash like heavy waves.
Highlights for me include
the free jazz explorations that wrap round the solid soul groove of Do The Right Thing, the stomping rampage
of Besszilla and the torch song
elegance of Same Sky.
I first heard this on One Jazz who seem to be giving it some well-deserved love and bought it on impulse (not the label). This album will take you to places most of us haven’t been before and many will not want to go there again. In either case it will have been a memorable journey. Dave Sayer
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