BEN CROSLAND QUINTET - Solway Stories
Jazz Cat: JCCD118
Steve Waterman: trumpet, flugelhorn; Chris Allard: guitar; Steve Lodder: piano, keyboard; Ben Crosland: bass; Dylan Howe: drums
Recorded 2nd and 3rd September 2020 by Graeme Taylor at Morden Shoals Studio, London
The origin of the pieces on this set lie in a holiday that Crosland took with his mother in the late 1980s, driving around Cumbria and up to the Solway Firth. Each tune captures the mood of places encountered in the journey, imbued with the memory of his late mother. While the origins are late 1980s, the compositions themselves took final form in 2018. But there is still something of the era of their origin in the meaty sound that this quintet builds around Crosland’s rich and melodic bass lines, and the ways in which the tunes work variations on funk grooves. The guitar lines, the drum patterns, the trumpet / keyboard lines on the opening track, ‘Driving North’, would sit nicely in a best of compilation from that time. Having said that, it also sits neatly as a timeless piece of heady jazz with a shuffling beat that catches you and compels you to bob along. The uplifting mood continues to the next tune, ‘Beeswing’. Ironically, it was seeing Richard Thompson perform a song with a similar name but different mood, that inspired Crosland to dig out his sketches and complete the tunes.
Each of the tunes has a strong melody and beautiful logic in their structure. So that each tune can be got immediately, but each listen reveals different facets, either in the nuanced chord sequences or the ways that the players pick up elements in their solos. This is one of those records that have its own language, its own narrative and its own beauty. Quietly under-stated but deeply compelling this is undoubtedly one of my favourite records this year.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
Jazz Cat: JCCD118
Steve Waterman: trumpet, flugelhorn; Chris Allard: guitar; Steve Lodder: piano, keyboard; Ben Crosland: bass; Dylan Howe: drums
Recorded 2nd and 3rd September 2020 by Graeme Taylor at Morden Shoals Studio, London
The origin of the pieces on this set lie in a holiday that Crosland took with his mother in the late 1980s, driving around Cumbria and up to the Solway Firth. Each tune captures the mood of places encountered in the journey, imbued with the memory of his late mother. While the origins are late 1980s, the compositions themselves took final form in 2018. But there is still something of the era of their origin in the meaty sound that this quintet builds around Crosland’s rich and melodic bass lines, and the ways in which the tunes work variations on funk grooves. The guitar lines, the drum patterns, the trumpet / keyboard lines on the opening track, ‘Driving North’, would sit nicely in a best of compilation from that time. Having said that, it also sits neatly as a timeless piece of heady jazz with a shuffling beat that catches you and compels you to bob along. The uplifting mood continues to the next tune, ‘Beeswing’. Ironically, it was seeing Richard Thompson perform a song with a similar name but different mood, that inspired Crosland to dig out his sketches and complete the tunes.
Each of the tunes has a strong melody and beautiful logic in their structure. So that each tune can be got immediately, but each listen reveals different facets, either in the nuanced chord sequences or the ways that the players pick up elements in their solos. This is one of those records that have its own language, its own narrative and its own beauty. Quietly under-stated but deeply compelling this is undoubtedly one of my favourite records this year.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
