Further reeding: sax and bass clarinet here from Golden Age of Steam London scene luminary James Allsopp and the unduly overlooked Loose Tubes éminence grise fellow hornman Steve Buckley on an album that opens quite funkily on ‘Yew.’
Allsopp has always been adventurous but has his feet firmly planted on the ground. Here he chooses a little light but not insubstantial funk idiomatically that goes more experimental the more he scratches that itch. Elsewhere he tours a Stan Getz themed show. But the sound here that is most meaningful percolates up from the bass – it’s Tom Herbert who is also crucial this year on Lophae‘s Perfect Strangers. Dave Storey on drums is steady and observational, occasionally getting more stuck in. But the album is led from a reeds imperative rather than from the drums.
‘Gravity’ I liked most for its Mark Turner like atmosphere and pared back accompaniment. The intertwined sax and bass clarinet-isms of something of an early free jazz hinting period piece ‘Orugoru’ also grabs me by the lapels and cross examines me as a listener ultimately confessing without being coerced at all to cough up that I love all this. Not too many sleeps until this not at all ho-hum more ho-ho-ho uplifter of a thing is out when it drops well before Santa gets his sleigh out for his busy annual period.