This is becoming a habit.
It’s the second album of the year – maybe there are more to come even – to feature English trumpeter and rising star James Davison.
The first, very pleasantly and far more trad than surfacing here – don’t hold that against Moon Beans – was a co-lead with the incredible double bassist Misha Mullov-Abbado.
Here it’s far more bebop at least to begin with and a deliciously overlapping take on ‘Ornithology’ that finds Davison keeping fast company with some icons of the English jazz scene, the 58 year old Worcestershire native trombonist Mark Nightingale and 66 year old Altrincham, Cheshire, born reeds matador Alan Barnes.
Jazz Classics… With a Twist is issued on Barnes’ straightahead label, Woodville Records.
Barnes is out there as ever touring extensively – and he’s in an interesting project with Alex Webb and Tony Kofi called The Pocket Ellington. Peruse a few of the dates in the gig guide above. Maybe, dear reader, they might even turn up near you.
But you’d travel a far longer way to hear a more expressive instrumental reading than Barnes’ take on ‘Skylark’ part of proceedings here.
The pianist on that track and throughout is Graham Harvey known for his work with Stacey Kent and the bassist with him is Jeremy Brown who was also coincidentally a fellow Stacey-ite. Hear both on the Duchess’ very beautiful 2013 record, The Changing Lights.
The Jazz Classics drummer is none other than Welshman Ian Thomas who I personally think is the UK’s best jazz drummer by a very long way – read my list of the top 20 here.
He’s Britain’s Steve Gadd. Thomas and Nightingale were both involved on last year’s exemplary Gareth Lockrane big band album, Box of Tricks.
‘Skylark’ is beautifully arranged by Nightingale.
You won’t be struggling to know the tunes on this album as almost all are instantly familiar. There’s a fun, so ripe it’s even fruity, reading of Jobim’s ‘Desafinado’ that becomes quite boisterous at least by sedate Britjazz standards; but even better is the young pretender’s loving treatment of Clifford Brown’s for-the-ages ‘Joy Spring’ where Davison comes into his own.
Like all the players involved he is communicative and expressive on his instrument. And he blends here well with “old masters” Barnes and Nightingale painting these pearls all over like a sort of jazz Johannes Vermeer. Thomas chooses a tempo that allows everyone to fold brilliantly into Davison’s solo with nary a jolt.
‘Round Midnight’ like all the tracks has a Nightingale arrangement. Harvey’s piano touch on it early on is unexpected in its lightness and actually un-Monk-likeness which in itself is refreshing. Barnes’ alto sax solo is wavery and loving. The Monk tune lies at the heart of modern jazz and its inclusion is one of the best choices among the Classics selections. Not quite sure what the “with a twist” refers to in the album title although I’ll have a stab at my best guess on this later in the review. Can’t wait, eh, for that, out there in the dear readerdom – jazz chum, can you.
Mercifully, it dawns on this, writing this review on the back of a napkin as the Basildon Bond has run out at the ungodly hour of 6am, nobody tries to be too clever with these incredible tunes or aim to reinvent the wheel. The players – not exactly trendsetters: it’s hip to be square when hipness elsewhere is so wearying (I watched The Brits on TV last week much to my dismay) – all play like the virtuosi they are in an appropriate style and fashion that is faithful to the mood and manifestations of the material.
The only tune I didn’t know here was Kenny Barron’s ‘Voyage’ so I have been educated on this and must try to get to know it better. The piece, a real headbobber, was first recorded in the 1980s on What If by Barron, John Stubblefield, Wallace Roney, Cecil McBee of Charles Lloyd Dream Weaver renown and Victor Lewis and there are versions of it out there most famously by Stan Getz found on 1986’s Voyage with Barron.
I suppose Jazz Classics… With a Twist could have wandered down the road to become obtuse by choosing show-off lesser known classics or even worse picking “rare groove” titles beloved of the reliably ravey davey jazz DJ community chosen for one reason only: they are obscure (and usually very ordinary), a factor that invariably escapes these beat hungry turntable tearaways desperate for attention. That would have been fatal.
There are no fears of not recognising ‘Satin Doll’. The hardy chestnut is done in a very laidback version even more so than usual and Thomas’ touch is worth focusing in on here for the way he languidly touches the cymbals and keeps you waiting as the wave of sound tips out and the drums roil and shudder. Herbie’s ‘Cantaloupe Island’ perhaps could be a bit funkier. But again the way the horns together are arranged is interesting even when it’s ever so polite. But again Davison plonks a big wodge of a marker down.
Ah: maybe the twist is that the treatment of Horace Silver classic ‘Peace’ begins with a Satie-like riff from Harvey. It’s a good way into the beautiful Silver melody that is a feature for Nightingale. It’s also a huge highlight of the album along with ‘Joy Spring’. His arrangements are ideal.
No, we don’t get ‘A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square’ pun intended. Warbling is left to others, elsewhere. But the album – not at all stodgy or stuffily nostalgic in any way – includes another nod to Monk in ‘Straight No Chaser’ at the end so there’s plenty of energy fizzing away when the album comes to a satisfying conclusion.
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