ALISON RAYNER QUINTET - A Magic Life
Blow the Fuse Records BTF1613CD
Alison Rayner: double bass; Buster Birch: drums / percussion; Deidre Cartwright: guitar; Diane McLoughlin: saxophones; Steve Lodder: piano
Recorded Summer 2016, Livingston Studio 1 London.
In the liner notes to this captivating recording, Rayner notes that the concept for the CD’s title came from the epitaph of a friend who had called her life magic, and a chance conversation with a child who had asked whether music was stronger than magic? The collection of pieces here explores the questions of memory, love and loss in terms of the connections between mortality, music and magic. While some of the pieces are about recollection, others look to the future. ‘MayDay’ begins with hand clapping before Cartwright’s explosive guitar soloing across the vamped rhythms from the band. This piece was inspired by the many origins of the May Day celebrations in all their political hues. This piece (and McLoughlin’s ‘New Day’, pared down to a quintet arrangement from a large ensemble piece) features a jaunty bass solos from Rayner who, for much of the set, tends to provide a nurturing lead from the rear in the rhythm section, allowing the soloists to push the pieces in their own directions. The twin lead of Cartwright and McLoughlin trade themes and burst into solos with strong and steady rhythmic support.
Inspirations are also drawn from Rayner’s memories of her childhood (with pieces evoking the Shetlands, ‘A magic life’, or the Dorset seaside, ‘Swanage Bay’) and her mother, ‘Friday’s Child’, or from the inspiration of Eberhard Weber and the neurologist Oliver Sachs, ‘Musicophilia’. These pieces have marvellously evocative blends of musical themes and styles that can, across a few bars, hint at traditional folk music, big band jazz and early afternoon TV theme tunes; without echoing any known songs, the pieces have an immediate familiarity. Perhaps, given Cartwright’s and Rayner’s previous stint with jazz-latin outfit The Guest Stars in the 1980s, the search for a catchy hook and a good tune is part and parcel of the song writing here. The mix of rhythms and musical styles, though, show a deep complexity in the ways in which elements are combined into unified wholes. So the use of Indian (Keralan) rhythms, ‘The Trunk Call’, or African rhyhms, Lodder’s ‘The OK Chorale’, become the starting point for the Quintet’s take on the forms and shapes of these rhythms without ever becoming reproductions of the style. It is this individuality and originality which brings such freshness to the pieces and to which all players in the quintet respond with gusto. Where the CD might have begun with the question of whether music or magic was stronger, the alchemy of the players here shows that with the right blend music can be magical.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
Blow the Fuse Records BTF1613CD
Alison Rayner: double bass; Buster Birch: drums / percussion; Deidre Cartwright: guitar; Diane McLoughlin: saxophones; Steve Lodder: piano
Recorded Summer 2016, Livingston Studio 1 London.
In the liner notes to this captivating recording, Rayner notes that the concept for the CD’s title came from the epitaph of a friend who had called her life magic, and a chance conversation with a child who had asked whether music was stronger than magic? The collection of pieces here explores the questions of memory, love and loss in terms of the connections between mortality, music and magic. While some of the pieces are about recollection, others look to the future. ‘MayDay’ begins with hand clapping before Cartwright’s explosive guitar soloing across the vamped rhythms from the band. This piece was inspired by the many origins of the May Day celebrations in all their political hues. This piece (and McLoughlin’s ‘New Day’, pared down to a quintet arrangement from a large ensemble piece) features a jaunty bass solos from Rayner who, for much of the set, tends to provide a nurturing lead from the rear in the rhythm section, allowing the soloists to push the pieces in their own directions. The twin lead of Cartwright and McLoughlin trade themes and burst into solos with strong and steady rhythmic support.
Inspirations are also drawn from Rayner’s memories of her childhood (with pieces evoking the Shetlands, ‘A magic life’, or the Dorset seaside, ‘Swanage Bay’) and her mother, ‘Friday’s Child’, or from the inspiration of Eberhard Weber and the neurologist Oliver Sachs, ‘Musicophilia’. These pieces have marvellously evocative blends of musical themes and styles that can, across a few bars, hint at traditional folk music, big band jazz and early afternoon TV theme tunes; without echoing any known songs, the pieces have an immediate familiarity. Perhaps, given Cartwright’s and Rayner’s previous stint with jazz-latin outfit The Guest Stars in the 1980s, the search for a catchy hook and a good tune is part and parcel of the song writing here. The mix of rhythms and musical styles, though, show a deep complexity in the ways in which elements are combined into unified wholes. So the use of Indian (Keralan) rhythms, ‘The Trunk Call’, or African rhyhms, Lodder’s ‘The OK Chorale’, become the starting point for the Quintet’s take on the forms and shapes of these rhythms without ever becoming reproductions of the style. It is this individuality and originality which brings such freshness to the pieces and to which all players in the quintet respond with gusto. Where the CD might have begun with the question of whether music or magic was stronger, the alchemy of the players here shows that with the right blend music can be magical.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
