ALEXANDER HAWKINS - ELAINE MITCHENER QUARTET - Uproot
Intakt: Intakt CD 297
Alexander Hawkins: piano; Elaine Mitchener: voice; Neil Charles: double bass; Stephen Davis: drums, percussion
Recorded April 19th and 20th, 2017, Fish Factory Studios, London.
It is no surprise to find this quartet covering tracks by Jeanne Lee (track 2, ‘The miracle’) and Archie Shepp (track 5, ‘Blasé’) – not because they do anything much like the originals, but because they take the license offered by these artists to do what they like with the tunes. Nor is it a surprise to see Mitchener credited with ‘voice’. As Brian Morton says in his liner-notes, she is a vocalist who brings a deep knowledge of a very particular tradition of avant-garde singing in jazz. While she can movingly deliver beautifully crafted and perfectly pitched tunes, Mitchener is as likely to sing-speak, stutter, pant, chatter or snap her teeth to create all manner of tones and notes. As cases in point, hear of her delivery of the list of thrown-away items on ‘Environmental music’ (track 6), or the yammering gargle with which she steps into the abstract chords and crashing cymbals on track 3, ‘UpRoot’. In this way, her role in the quartet is partly the singer but equally a set of percussive and chordal instruments that worry away at the edges of the tunes and the pull out the centre of the rhythm. This is just as well because this is a quartet that doesn’t require a singer to stand out in front, but someone who can roll up her sleeves in dig in as the music continually threatens to burst out of its composed lines.
This is the sort of music that Alexander Hawkins has been making for some time, and building a substantial reputation as a leader of avant-garde piano work. His compositions (of which there 4 on show here, together with a piece credited to the quartet) create invigorating and swirling patterns, with their shifting but always well-balanced rhythms. Charles and Davis give the tunes a deep resonance, and on sections like the thrilling bass solo that Charles takes in track 6, ‘OM – SE / Environment music’, demonstrate how much they are simply ¼ of the band rather than ‘the rhythm section’.
This really is modern jazz of the highest order, continually seeking and pushing boundaries in the way that music is made, but never losing sight of the logic of melody and primacy of rhythm.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
Intakt: Intakt CD 297
Alexander Hawkins: piano; Elaine Mitchener: voice; Neil Charles: double bass; Stephen Davis: drums, percussion
Recorded April 19th and 20th, 2017, Fish Factory Studios, London.
It is no surprise to find this quartet covering tracks by Jeanne Lee (track 2, ‘The miracle’) and Archie Shepp (track 5, ‘Blasé’) – not because they do anything much like the originals, but because they take the license offered by these artists to do what they like with the tunes. Nor is it a surprise to see Mitchener credited with ‘voice’. As Brian Morton says in his liner-notes, she is a vocalist who brings a deep knowledge of a very particular tradition of avant-garde singing in jazz. While she can movingly deliver beautifully crafted and perfectly pitched tunes, Mitchener is as likely to sing-speak, stutter, pant, chatter or snap her teeth to create all manner of tones and notes. As cases in point, hear of her delivery of the list of thrown-away items on ‘Environmental music’ (track 6), or the yammering gargle with which she steps into the abstract chords and crashing cymbals on track 3, ‘UpRoot’. In this way, her role in the quartet is partly the singer but equally a set of percussive and chordal instruments that worry away at the edges of the tunes and the pull out the centre of the rhythm. This is just as well because this is a quartet that doesn’t require a singer to stand out in front, but someone who can roll up her sleeves in dig in as the music continually threatens to burst out of its composed lines.
This is the sort of music that Alexander Hawkins has been making for some time, and building a substantial reputation as a leader of avant-garde piano work. His compositions (of which there 4 on show here, together with a piece credited to the quartet) create invigorating and swirling patterns, with their shifting but always well-balanced rhythms. Charles and Davis give the tunes a deep resonance, and on sections like the thrilling bass solo that Charles takes in track 6, ‘OM – SE / Environment music’, demonstrate how much they are simply ¼ of the band rather than ‘the rhythm section’.
This really is modern jazz of the highest order, continually seeking and pushing boundaries in the way that music is made, but never losing sight of the logic of melody and primacy of rhythm.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
