There’s more going on than simply wanting to get the party started.
Trumpeter Steve Pretty‘s band needs no introduction and their influence is felt as new bands come through.
Certainly Birmingham’s Young Pilgrims whose We’re Young Pilgrims you could say seemed to have picked up the baton from these London veterans a few years ago. Both New Orleans marching bands and brass band traditions from the Balkans are up front and meaningful for each.
Here it’s the typically Hackney boisterous mix. Plus look at the guests. The delight is in the detail. And for a band that relies on chunky brassy riffs and a certain feet thumping on the floor groove gravity to it with little reliance on harmony instruments you might think that all this might be a bit too relentless.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Heavy lifting
With a gestation period of some 8 years and a cast of very far flung guests stylistically you might think the whole thing would be disjointed.
It isn’t at all. It just takes a moment to readjust if your usual listening is shaped around a rhythm section of bass, piano and drums. Because Pretty and tuba player Ed Ashby do a great deal of heavy lifting with no little welly provided by drummers Luke Christie and Olly Blackman who provide plenty of great material and quite a few added horn player guests notably trumpeter Tim Quicke, altoist Chris Maddock and the Mulatu sideman tenorist James Arben, trombonist Rosie Turton plus others crop up.
Vibrant and lively affair
Recorded at a range of studios including the tubatastic Christie tune ‘Crazy Focus’ recorded at The Kinks’ Konk studio (most of the album was done at Livingstone also in north London) Selena Seballo, DJ Yoda, Joanna Christie, Yvette Riby-Williams and Valeria Clarke all figure on this vibrant and lively affair.
The new album arrives five years on from its predecessor which had guests such as Norwegian keys maven Bugge Wesseltoft and Ethiojazz vibes godfather Mulatu Astatke on it. (Dennis Rollins on that album’s ‘Ricochet’ was a highlight as was Acoustic Ladyland’s Pete Wareham on storming form on ‘What’s Gone Before.’)
The new release like its predecessor is not all full on by any means although this is not music for wallflowers.
You get a certain gypsy jazz balm on a track like the Remi Harris feature of ‘Handmade Flow’ for instance that pooters along agreeably. You can even imagine you are suddenly by the camp fire even as visions of Django flicker.
Best bits for us are when top UK jazz singer Polly Gibbons lets her hair down and delivers a powerhouse soul drenched vocal on ‘Something Bout My Love.’
The African touches of Danny Keane on the mesmerising ‘Eleventy Three’ where there’s tremendous answering response from the horns also work beautifully.
Joe Armon Jones flow
Joe Armon Jones of Ezra Collective contributes one of the best featured spots busily romping away on Fender Rhodes on ‘New Opening’. Above all there’s plenty of motion – the album is fun and draws in lots of strands from all sorts of musical traditions that magically match and fuse.
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