”I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself. A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough without ever having felt sorry for itself.”
– DH Lawrence’s words interpreted on the title track of Thrive
With most albums there’s a menu of choices.
And Thrive is no different.
Strong conceptually, the main choices on this folky naturalistic modern mainstream jazz album are easy to pick out.
Tracks that involve limited vocals, trio instrumental settings and two kinds of quartets – one, with the piano trio of the leader – singer pianist Fabienne Ambuehl with Darius Brubeck bassist Matt Ridley & GoGo Penguin drummer Jon Scott + guitarist Ant Law (known for his work with Henry Spencer and Brigitte Beraha) – the other, the same trio plus guitarist Tom Ollendorff are the name of the game.
The O contributes a lot of balm
The quartet tracks – either grouping – are what we gravitated to most and prefer Ambuehl’s piano playing to her singing although the very exact vocals and tonally very pure sounds are not without their blazing charm particularly the spirited banshee like wail on ‘New Ones’ and the elfin like innocence exhibited by contrast on ‘Immaculate Rain.’
With Law on ‘New Ones’ it’s more jazz rock electric driving passion whereas with the Ollendorff tracks (‘Immaculate Rain,’ ‘Timeline’) these are more pastoral. I’ve played tracks from this album a lot over the last few weeks and I guess will continue to as it keeps on giving.
Pick of the bundle – oh easily ‘Timeline’ the O as ever a case of oh yeah as once again Ealing’s finest excels. Ambuehl’s piano playing on ‘Nihil’ is another strong suit here – and journeys to the soul of rhapsodic grace like it’s the most natural thing in the world.
