THEY ARE NOT NEW: But the chances are even if paying close attention that the name Howl Quartet still doesn’t ring any bells.
I’ve been listening to their latest Night Song. Worthwhile – mercifully, given that a good outcome isn’t guaranteed. You have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find your prince when sampling unknown work. They already have released a couple of recordings.
OK I’ll get a small bit of “ribbiting” out of the way: It could have been a lot wilder. Allen Ginsberg, an influence on jazz influenced British poets such as Michael Horovitz (1935-2021), and Howl Quartet themselves of course, was wild. But without croaking on unduly about the absence of mayhem let’s just call what the quartet of Dan Smith (alto saxophone), Harry Brunt (tenor saxophone), Pete Komor (double bass) and Matt Parkinson (drums) touring this autumn do progressively modernistic. Its manicured aesthetic is couched in an assuredly syncretic grasp of rearranged post-bop derived idioms that spool far beyond the base never in danger of sinking the jazz Titanic.
Themes explored by the tunes encompass new parenthood, family bereavement, a Himalayas journey, a home and so on. Fancy that. You don’t need to know any of the above really. But there’s good flow and gutsy command of style and substance which means more. Dearly dishevelled – all the ducks are in a row. Moloch! Solitude! Filth! Ugliness! Ashcans and unobtainable dollars! Allen: Amen.
