Geronimo – it’s an on song Giacomo. Fair play to the trad loving Smithster, pictured, meshing well with some Scandi types and Joe Webb, for this
Giacomo Smith is an Italy born, America raised clarinettist and saxophonist who become a familiar presence on the London jazz scene largely through Kansas Smitty’s, the club and band project he co-founded. I remember visiting his club in Hackney on a night a decade ago when Giacomo was playing with Alex Garnett and it was certainly a pleasant evening.
However, generally, to be perfectly frank, his taste is a bit too retro for me. It isn’t so much here by his standards and it’s all the better for being a bit more brooding and spiritual in places – you get a wonderfully sepulchral feel to ‘Largo Montebello’ for instance and the tone achieved is so mellow on the opener, the title track.
This isn’t an overly gloomy record; it journeys through a lot of emotions from the more profound all the way up to locate fun vibes which you get right at the end on the ragtime like ‘Two Four No More.’
The personnel are familiar from their work together in drummer Snorre Kirk’s quartet. Pianist Joe Webb I reviewed last year at the Green Note in Camden, is terrific under his own steam leading his trio. And again I’d choose Webb’s trio recordings particularly Hamstrings & Hurricanes rather than this album good though it is if push were to come to shove. I am unfamiliar with both Danish bassist Anders Fjeldsted and Kirk, who I believe is a Denmark residing Norwegian. They are steady and committed and do yeoman work supporting the piano and lead reed lines. Issuing label Stunt is a Danish outfit particularly good at putting out vocals albums – for instance their release Malene and Christian this year is really worth seeking out and more my cup of tea than Artfullee.
Webb loves stride but finds other avenues here and doesn’t do his James P. Johnson turn. Sigh. But it shows he isn’t a one trick pony. The Welsh one clearly likes to deliver feelgood jazz steeped in the distant past, preferably the more distant the better. The quartet’s work together includes Kirk’s What A Day! issued last year.
Smith switches about quite a bit and picks up clarinet, bass clarinet, alto saxophone and soprano saxophone by turn. But it’s his clarinet playing that is his strongest suit. I kept thinking of Barney Bigard a bit and ended up skiving off to listen to ‘Clarinet Lament’ during a break suitably inspired and rustled up “a lull at dawn” playlist as well before returning for more of Artfullee.
Gawd. Glad I did. These days Victor Goines is the kind of clarinettist I most admire in this sort of area. The album’s one non-original is Duke Ellington’s ‘Reflections in D,’ faithfully rendered, a composition first recorded by Ellington in 1953 for Duke Plays Ellington. Its presence makes sense in the context of Smith’s musical outlook. Ellington’s writing has long provided a meeting point between composed elegance and individual expression.
Ultimately whether this will grab you depends on how high your tolerance for trad jazz and swing is (I use these terms mainly to distinguish these from bebop). If you are agnostic to their charms perhaps this album isn’t so much for you. But it’s worth abandoning your comfort zone to discover what this lively collection of players bring to the table. It won’t ruffle any feathers but hunt long enough and you are sure to locate valued truffles, little patches of pitch perfect feeling, that thrive upon a riff and know how to express a certain passion with inordinate panache.
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