MERAKI - Meraki
Ubuntu - UBU0044
Jacky Naylor - piano; Nick Jurd - bass; Jonathan Silk - drums
Meraki is the vehicle for the musical imagination of pianist Naylor, an impressively accomplished player with a particularly well developed two handed technique which he uses to great advantage on this collection of original pieces. There’s an acknowledged debt to European stylists working in the wake of the great Esbjorn Svensson: lots of tumbling, straight-8s grooves, pulsing minor chord ostinatos (as on the rushing, exciting ’43’) that build up and up without ever resolving, interspersed with carefully written twisty ensemble parts, which the trio negotiate with aplomb. Fans of Michel Wollny will find much to enjoy here: Naylor has a penchant for sombre Scandinavian minor key moods, as on ‘Two Sides Of The Same Coin’, but also isn’t afraid of allowing in melody and accessible chord progressions, and there’s a consistent attention to mood and atmosphere that makes for compelling listening. Jurd is an exciting soloist in his own right, adding nice arco textures to ‘Dr Jeckyll and Mr Hyde’: he and Silk bring the intricate grooves of ‘Sherpa’ and ‘9 Lives’ to life and deliver them with a well judged blend of precision and gusto. Naylor mixes things up with atmospheric downtempo interludes and finishes on the quietly simmering ‘Simple Things’. Fans of the towering club-influenced mournful grooves of Gogo Penguin might find much to enjoy here, but Naylor works with more subtlety and less bombast to produce highly accomplished and satisfying results.
Reviewed by Eddie Myer
Ubuntu - UBU0044
Jacky Naylor - piano; Nick Jurd - bass; Jonathan Silk - drums
Meraki is the vehicle for the musical imagination of pianist Naylor, an impressively accomplished player with a particularly well developed two handed technique which he uses to great advantage on this collection of original pieces. There’s an acknowledged debt to European stylists working in the wake of the great Esbjorn Svensson: lots of tumbling, straight-8s grooves, pulsing minor chord ostinatos (as on the rushing, exciting ’43’) that build up and up without ever resolving, interspersed with carefully written twisty ensemble parts, which the trio negotiate with aplomb. Fans of Michel Wollny will find much to enjoy here: Naylor has a penchant for sombre Scandinavian minor key moods, as on ‘Two Sides Of The Same Coin’, but also isn’t afraid of allowing in melody and accessible chord progressions, and there’s a consistent attention to mood and atmosphere that makes for compelling listening. Jurd is an exciting soloist in his own right, adding nice arco textures to ‘Dr Jeckyll and Mr Hyde’: he and Silk bring the intricate grooves of ‘Sherpa’ and ‘9 Lives’ to life and deliver them with a well judged blend of precision and gusto. Naylor mixes things up with atmospheric downtempo interludes and finishes on the quietly simmering ‘Simple Things’. Fans of the towering club-influenced mournful grooves of Gogo Penguin might find much to enjoy here, but Naylor works with more subtlety and less bombast to produce highly accomplished and satisfying results.
Reviewed by Eddie Myer
