One faultline you get with flawed best of the year lists – and these are nearly always heavily flawed – that applies to albums released after say September is that in worst case scenarios such late in the year releases miss the lists as magazines and papers often have long lead times. Online lists are more up to date. But just as annoyingly reviewers don’t get enough time to “live” with the record, that is moderate their opinions with the benefit of greater time spent listening so when they actually decide to revise their rankings it is too late.
Does all that kind of thing – “reaction noise” matter? You might think it does, but no, not as much as critics think. They, we, make the judgements for better or worse. Take them or leave them, gentle reader although it’s a fallacy to claim people don’t judge, however tacitly or not they choose to expose their thinking. And apathy or indifference is the most unacceptable reaction of all – choosing not to want to know for a reason is extreme. But the late in the year timing factor is an issue here as I only have found time to listen to Through the Storm today. I think it was released last week. So I am not alone in this. However, if you glance at the best Irish jazz this year listed below it’s already high up.
Why? What’s so good about it? Is it just me being easily led by the last thing I listened to and thinking it’s the bee’s knees just because it’s in front of me? My only caveat is that in a blind listening I wouldn’t say it’s Carole Nelson, a London born pianist who has lived in Ireland for years. It could be many pianists given how much the style, a dreamy, modal, thoughtful direction compositionally, dominates.
First thing it is a piano trio in the main. And some people might say in prosecution of the evidence: it sounds like a lot of other impressionistic piano trio albums. I think that is fair comment. I’m thinking of work by people like Nikki Iles for instance most or Liam Noble when he isn’t being avant-garde or Huw Warren through the filter of modal jazz in an Evansianian world.
In its defence I think it’s far better than any of Nelson’s work so far which to be frank hasn’t really excited me. I’ll probably go back and listen again to see what I missed first time around having liked this new one. It’s got very good bass underpinning from Cormac O’Brien and the sonics are bright. The cover art is a bit plain and dowdy however. Drummer Dominic Mullan makes me think of the Irish player known for his work with Jerry Bergonzi Stephen Keogh. It’s that kind of no nonsense style. But really as most jazz fans know, piano as a percussion instrument itself is like 88 tuned drums and this is about piano not drums and the latter instrument’s role is a benevolent presence rather than the main event.
Tunes are melodic, sensitive, pleasant, not dull at all. There’s a bit of non essential slightly annoying sax played by Nelson intruding on ‘Eden’ and the “birdsong” of ‘Kaua I O O’ is only a limited talking point. If Nelson was a poet writing words this would be about the countryside, landscapes, dark skies. This is the sort of poetry line I turn to inspired by what I hear: It’s by the modernist, literary feminist iconic Irish poet Eavan Boland (1944-2020) from a poem called ‘The Singers’:
“After which
Eavan Boland
And only when the danger
was plain in the music could you know
their true measure of rejoicing in
finding a voice where they found a vision”
Of course there’s an influence more than this random bit of Eavan of the American Kind of Blue Welsh-Russian descended pianist Bill Evans – isn’t there nearly always? I got this mostly on the piece ‘Sky’. I don’t think Nelson should have switched to Fender Rhodes on the funkier ‘Encroachment’ – it would have been just as good on piano. Nevertheless clearly Nelson has found her voice. While not at all edgy or meant to be the trio sound passes through the fourth wall to darken the soul and mean something that remains in the imagination once listening is over.
- Hear Carole Nelson at the Cooler, Dublin on Thursday night
