Julian Siegel Quartet - Vista

The Guardian 80

The British multi-instrumentalist’s new set features tightly wound postbop, pensive improv and more, along with Siegel’s sweeping authority on bass clarinet

Plus: Sylvie Courvoisier: D’Agala | Walter Smith III: Twio

Jazz musicians are a famously itinerant bunch – as niche artists, economics obliges them to juggle the dreams they’d prefer to be focusing on with a pragmatic assortment of freelance gigs. But itinerant jazz-making has its own seductive creative attractions: players’ mix of formal technique and improv skills lets them perform almost anybody’s music in almost any kind of band, so they can relish the fun of spontaneous meetings with friends or strangers.

Julian Siegel, the British multi-instrumentalist, is a virtuoso of turning up and making a difference, but he’s good at sustaining regular bands, too. His skilful nine-year-old quartet with brilliant pianist Liam Noble, bassist Oli Hayhurst, and expat American drummer Gene Calderazzo this month release their second album, Vista. As with its 2011 predecessor, Urban Theme Park, there’s plenty of tightly wound postbop in which pensive improvisations burst into double-time sprints or glimpses of Latin music (The Opener); smoky piano/tenor sax duets that become bass-driven swirls (I Want to Go to Brazil); a mischievous dance swapped between soprano sax and piano (Pastorale), and a snappy rhythm-bender with a rousingly stomping piano riff for the title track. Bebop piano legend Bud Powell’s Un Poco Loco is the only cover, a staccato 1951 theme that sounds as if it could have been written yesterday for this percussive quartet. But Vista has its reflective episodes, too (it’s more varied and spontaneously exploratory than their 2011 debut), such as the murmuring Song and free-floating Full Circle. And there’s the jigging Idea, spun out of a duet with Calderazzo’s drums, that showcases Siegel’s sweeping authority on the bass clarinet.

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Thu Feb 15 15:05:18 GMT 2018

The Guardian 80

The British multi-instrumentalist’s new set features tightly wound postbop, pensive improv and more, along with Siegel’s sweeping authority on bass clarinet

Plus: Sylvie Courvoisier: D’Agala | Walter Smith III: Twio

Jazz musicians are a famously itinerant bunch – as niche artists, economics obliges them to juggle the dreams they’d prefer to be focusing on with a pragmatic assortment of freelance gigs. But itinerant jazz-making has its own seductive creative attractions: players’ mix of formal technique and improv skills lets them perform almost anybody’s music in almost any kind of band, so they can relish the fun of spontaneous meetings with friends or strangers.

Julian Siegel, the British multi-instrumentalist, is a virtuoso of turning up and making a difference, but he’s good at sustaining regular bands, too. His skilful nine-year-old quartet with brilliant pianist Liam Noble, bassist Oli Hayhurst, and expat American drummer Gene Calderazzo this month release their second album, Vista. As with its 2011 predecessor, Urban Theme Park, there’s plenty of tightly wound postbop in which pensive improvisations burst into double-time sprints or glimpses of Latin music (The Opener); smoky piano/tenor sax duets that become bass-driven swirls (I Want to Go to Brazil); a mischievous dance swapped between soprano sax and piano (Pastorale), and a snappy rhythm-bender with a rousingly stomping piano riff for the title track. Bebop piano legend Bud Powell’s Un Poco Loco is the only cover, a staccato 1951 theme that sounds as if it could have been written yesterday for this percussive quartet. But Vista has its reflective episodes, too (it’s more varied and spontaneously exploratory than their 2011 debut), such as the murmuring Song and free-floating Full Circle. And there’s the jigging Idea, spun out of a duet with Calderazzo’s drums, that showcases Siegel’s sweeping authority on the bass clarinet.

Continue reading...

Thu Feb 15 15:05:18 GMT 2018