JOY ELLIS - Life On Land
F-IRE CD 96
Joy Ellis (v, p, elp); Rob Luft (elg); Henrik Jensen (b); Adam Osmianski (d); James Copus (flh); Binker Golding (ts)
Recorded Eastcote Studios May/June 2016.
Inspired, Joy Ellis tells us by life on the land, the natural, the beauty, the brutality and how we try to make sense of it all. The opening selection From Dusk Till Dawn features the leader on electric piano, an oddly ‘70s sound although Luft’s electric guitar is more in the straight ahead, jazz mainstream. The Jazzman finds Ms Ellis singing her own words, playing acoustic piano and backed by bass and drums. Binker Golding gets a good workout on tenor sax on this track, the first of his two appearances. This is a strong, sinewy jazz tenor solo, right in the straight ahead tradition. Luft follows in much the same manner. It is a good jazz track but mainly because of the instrumental solos; the song is fairly undistinguished.
Here In The Quiet is a gentle ballad which Joy sings and accompanies herself lyrically on piano. Her piano solo builds in intensity as the track proceeds and then reverts back to a gentle vocal to finish. Life On The Land is also at ballad tempo and begins with a warm flugelhorn solo, the first of two appearances by James Copus. His spiralling solo is followed by a flowing acoustic piano segment from Joy and a short guitar solo, no vocal here. There are some fine solos and the programme overall is well balanced. The compositions are serviceable for vocal and instrumental solo purposes but are not really in any way memorable. It maybe stating the obvious but a couple of jazz or popular standards would have added something to the music programme. Veteran has the standout piano and guitar solos. Top marks though for originality and freshness throughout.
Reviewed by Derek Ansell
F-IRE CD 96
Joy Ellis (v, p, elp); Rob Luft (elg); Henrik Jensen (b); Adam Osmianski (d); James Copus (flh); Binker Golding (ts)
Recorded Eastcote Studios May/June 2016.
Inspired, Joy Ellis tells us by life on the land, the natural, the beauty, the brutality and how we try to make sense of it all. The opening selection From Dusk Till Dawn features the leader on electric piano, an oddly ‘70s sound although Luft’s electric guitar is more in the straight ahead, jazz mainstream. The Jazzman finds Ms Ellis singing her own words, playing acoustic piano and backed by bass and drums. Binker Golding gets a good workout on tenor sax on this track, the first of his two appearances. This is a strong, sinewy jazz tenor solo, right in the straight ahead tradition. Luft follows in much the same manner. It is a good jazz track but mainly because of the instrumental solos; the song is fairly undistinguished.
Here In The Quiet is a gentle ballad which Joy sings and accompanies herself lyrically on piano. Her piano solo builds in intensity as the track proceeds and then reverts back to a gentle vocal to finish. Life On The Land is also at ballad tempo and begins with a warm flugelhorn solo, the first of two appearances by James Copus. His spiralling solo is followed by a flowing acoustic piano segment from Joy and a short guitar solo, no vocal here. There are some fine solos and the programme overall is well balanced. The compositions are serviceable for vocal and instrumental solo purposes but are not really in any way memorable. It maybe stating the obvious but a couple of jazz or popular standards would have added something to the music programme. Veteran has the standout piano and guitar solos. Top marks though for originality and freshness throughout.
Reviewed by Derek Ansell
