NIGEL PRICE ORGAN TRIO - Live At The Crypt
NERVYCD-001
Available from https://nigethejazzer.bandcamp.com/
Nigel price - guitar; Ross Stanley - hammond organ; Matt Home - drums; Vasilis Xenopolos - tenor sax
Nigel Price. London, UK. Over a career spanning more than 25 years, award winning jazz guitarist Nigel Price has become widely acknowledged as one of the hardest working musicians in the business. His blend of flowing bebop lines, deep blues sensibility and his mastery of chording continue to delight audiences and fellow musicians alike.
Nigel Price is well known for his inexhaustible energy and his commitment to the cause of UK jazz, best exemplified by the epic national tours he and his cohort of like-minded players regularly embark on around the nation’s jazz clubs. His release ‘Heads And Tales’ provided exhaustive documentation of the group’s focus and talent; this album provides a clear, in-focus snapshot of them at work in their natural environment. The material is all from the Heads And Tales release, consisting of contrafacts by Price on well-known standards - a choice that nicely illustrates his approach to simultaneously preserving the legacy by playing to his established audience, and refreshing it by adding his own energetic take. The recording was made mid-tour, and the empathy between the band members is impeccable as they tear into the material, using the familiar changes to draw forth a seemingly inexhaustible supply of swingingly creative ideas. Price’s own articulation is a wonder of crisply swinging precision, his solos artfully built up in the manner of his inspiration Wes Montgomery from biting single notes into tides of chordal melodies: but he’s no Wes clone and his solo intros to tunes like “All In” reveal an original ear for harmony and chord voicing. Ross Stanley is rock solid in support and endlessly inventive in solo, deploying the mighty Hammonds’ full range of textures: his accompaniment on ‘Don’t Look Back’ is a masterpiece of restrained, textural variation and artfully maintained drama. Matt Home is tastefully in the groove throughout, and Xenopoulos reaffirms his eminent suitability as a partner for Price, complementing his clean articulation, immaculate sense of time and thorough grounding in bebop language. A very satisfying document of a band doing what they do best, and doing it to perfection.
Reviewed by Eddie Myer
NERVYCD-001
Available from https://nigethejazzer.bandcamp.com/
Nigel price - guitar; Ross Stanley - hammond organ; Matt Home - drums; Vasilis Xenopolos - tenor sax
Nigel Price. London, UK. Over a career spanning more than 25 years, award winning jazz guitarist Nigel Price has become widely acknowledged as one of the hardest working musicians in the business. His blend of flowing bebop lines, deep blues sensibility and his mastery of chording continue to delight audiences and fellow musicians alike.
Nigel Price is well known for his inexhaustible energy and his commitment to the cause of UK jazz, best exemplified by the epic national tours he and his cohort of like-minded players regularly embark on around the nation’s jazz clubs. His release ‘Heads And Tales’ provided exhaustive documentation of the group’s focus and talent; this album provides a clear, in-focus snapshot of them at work in their natural environment. The material is all from the Heads And Tales release, consisting of contrafacts by Price on well-known standards - a choice that nicely illustrates his approach to simultaneously preserving the legacy by playing to his established audience, and refreshing it by adding his own energetic take. The recording was made mid-tour, and the empathy between the band members is impeccable as they tear into the material, using the familiar changes to draw forth a seemingly inexhaustible supply of swingingly creative ideas. Price’s own articulation is a wonder of crisply swinging precision, his solos artfully built up in the manner of his inspiration Wes Montgomery from biting single notes into tides of chordal melodies: but he’s no Wes clone and his solo intros to tunes like “All In” reveal an original ear for harmony and chord voicing. Ross Stanley is rock solid in support and endlessly inventive in solo, deploying the mighty Hammonds’ full range of textures: his accompaniment on ‘Don’t Look Back’ is a masterpiece of restrained, textural variation and artfully maintained drama. Matt Home is tastefully in the groove throughout, and Xenopoulos reaffirms his eminent suitability as a partner for Price, complementing his clean articulation, immaculate sense of time and thorough grounding in bebop language. A very satisfying document of a band doing what they do best, and doing it to perfection.
Reviewed by Eddie Myer
