BRIAN MOLLEY QUARTET - Modern Traditions
BGMM©: 003
Brian Molley (tenor and soprano saxes, flute, clarinet, bass clarinet) Tom Gibbs (piano) Brodie Jarvie (bass) Stuart Brown (drums) Recorded at Castlesound Studio, Scotland, January 2021.
Brian Molley, formerly a founding member of the reeds and brass combo, `Brass Jaw`, formed his quartet in 2012 and this is his third release as leader of the combo. `Clock` (2013) and `Colour and Movement` (2017) revealed him to be a resourceful and imaginative instrumentalist, arranger and composer and his latest outing with its marriage of conventional modern jazz modes and extraneous elements drawn from a variety of musical sources, can only enhance his burgeoning international reputation.
Playing mainly tenor sax – the woodwinds added to provide some overdubbed colouration to an unusual arrangement of `The Trolley Song`- he produces a warm sound, light on vibrato but with a slightly metallic edge and resonant timbre. Nothing too showy but sufficiently distinctive to hold one’s attention. His band is equally adept with long-time collaborator Brown on drums and the estimable Tom Gibbs on piano whose playing displays the influence of his one-time mentor, John Taylor. Brodie Jarvie is no slouch either, providing a solid pulse and dextrous solos when called upon. Together they deliver a playlist that ticks all the boxes in terms of jazz dynamics and interpretive ingenuity.
They open up with a slipshod blues condensed to 10 bars and driven along on New Orleans style second -line drumming with some fertile interplay between tenor and piano. A pair of ballads follow, the first a sort of lullaby, initially gentle and dreamy but increasing in focus and intensity, the second a Disney theme, `A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes’, its sentimentality tempered by enhanced harmonics and metric contrivances. Contemporary sounding hard bop provides the inspiration for the next piece, namely the Marsalis brothers eighties release, ‘Black Codes from the Underground`, which Molley wittily entitles `Bletchley` and invests with some high octane thrust.
Then there is the aforementioned `Trolley Song` upon which Molley unleashes his imaginative flair, intentionally stripping it of its vitality and rendering it as a melancholic elegy quite unlike the version Dave Brubeck played as part of his established repertoire. Bop licks return to the menu with a piece entitled `Nimble Royals` - actually an anagram of Molloy’s name – which serves as a homage to the be-bop pioneers, the crowned heads of jazz music.
Royalty of a more sinister variety provide the inspiration for the penultimate piece in which Molloy invokes the turbulent reign of Bloody Mary and her Spanish spouse. He calls it `Sinkapace` which is derived from the name given to a 16th century courtly dance – cinque pace- a galliard which in this instance dispenses with its five step progression to become a sort of funereal pavanne with a haunted ballroom eeriness.
The set closes on more familiar, but nonetheless innovative, territory, with a tribute to Sarah Vaughan which weaves her signature standard `Tenderly` into an exhilarating Latin /swing time mash up completing a very attractive session offering listening pleasure on several levels. Molloy and his men are a class act and if there were such a thing as a Jazz Olympics, they would be surely bringing home gold for Team UK.
Reviewed by Euan Dixon
BGMM©: 003
Brian Molley (tenor and soprano saxes, flute, clarinet, bass clarinet) Tom Gibbs (piano) Brodie Jarvie (bass) Stuart Brown (drums) Recorded at Castlesound Studio, Scotland, January 2021.
Brian Molley, formerly a founding member of the reeds and brass combo, `Brass Jaw`, formed his quartet in 2012 and this is his third release as leader of the combo. `Clock` (2013) and `Colour and Movement` (2017) revealed him to be a resourceful and imaginative instrumentalist, arranger and composer and his latest outing with its marriage of conventional modern jazz modes and extraneous elements drawn from a variety of musical sources, can only enhance his burgeoning international reputation.
Playing mainly tenor sax – the woodwinds added to provide some overdubbed colouration to an unusual arrangement of `The Trolley Song`- he produces a warm sound, light on vibrato but with a slightly metallic edge and resonant timbre. Nothing too showy but sufficiently distinctive to hold one’s attention. His band is equally adept with long-time collaborator Brown on drums and the estimable Tom Gibbs on piano whose playing displays the influence of his one-time mentor, John Taylor. Brodie Jarvie is no slouch either, providing a solid pulse and dextrous solos when called upon. Together they deliver a playlist that ticks all the boxes in terms of jazz dynamics and interpretive ingenuity.
They open up with a slipshod blues condensed to 10 bars and driven along on New Orleans style second -line drumming with some fertile interplay between tenor and piano. A pair of ballads follow, the first a sort of lullaby, initially gentle and dreamy but increasing in focus and intensity, the second a Disney theme, `A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes’, its sentimentality tempered by enhanced harmonics and metric contrivances. Contemporary sounding hard bop provides the inspiration for the next piece, namely the Marsalis brothers eighties release, ‘Black Codes from the Underground`, which Molley wittily entitles `Bletchley` and invests with some high octane thrust.
Then there is the aforementioned `Trolley Song` upon which Molley unleashes his imaginative flair, intentionally stripping it of its vitality and rendering it as a melancholic elegy quite unlike the version Dave Brubeck played as part of his established repertoire. Bop licks return to the menu with a piece entitled `Nimble Royals` - actually an anagram of Molloy’s name – which serves as a homage to the be-bop pioneers, the crowned heads of jazz music.
Royalty of a more sinister variety provide the inspiration for the penultimate piece in which Molloy invokes the turbulent reign of Bloody Mary and her Spanish spouse. He calls it `Sinkapace` which is derived from the name given to a 16th century courtly dance – cinque pace- a galliard which in this instance dispenses with its five step progression to become a sort of funereal pavanne with a haunted ballroom eeriness.
The set closes on more familiar, but nonetheless innovative, territory, with a tribute to Sarah Vaughan which weaves her signature standard `Tenderly` into an exhilarating Latin /swing time mash up completing a very attractive session offering listening pleasure on several levels. Molloy and his men are a class act and if there were such a thing as a Jazz Olympics, they would be surely bringing home gold for Team UK.
Reviewed by Euan Dixon
