SAM NEWBOULD - Bogus Notus
ZenneZ Records
Sam Newbould (alto sax & compositions) Bernard van Rossum (tenor sax) Youngwoo Lee (piano) Daniel Nagel (bass) Guy Salamon (drums) with guests Ian Cleaver (trumpet) Billy Marrows (guitar) Beth Aggett (vocal) Frederico Calcagno (bass clarinet)
Recorded in Amsterdam, September 2020
There is a famous saying attributed to Plutarch and quoted in the frontispiece of Ted Gioia’s excellent book `Music: A Subversive History`, that goes, “Music to create harmony, must investigate discord” Certainly this has proved to be true of jazz as an art form given that it bristles with the tensions that arise from confrontations between musical forms and cultural influences. It’s the grit in the mollusc that produces the pearl and in Sam Newbould’s latest disc we have a shining example of what gems emerge when potentially disparate elements are brought together in search of a synthesis.
The elements in question are progressive jazz and rock modes combined with Newbould’s nativist English folk music and pastoral influences, a union celebrated in `Blencathra`, his quintet’s original release that received warm approbation within these pages from our leader Nick. Allied to this intermixture of musical forms are Newbould’s personal feelings regarding “The joy of home mixed with the discomfort of being an outsider”, a condition for which he has coined the term `Bogus Notus`, the title of this latest set.
I have to say that on a first hearing methinks he protests too much for he sounds very much at home leading his Anglo/Dutch band through a playlist of eight confidently expressed originals that bring the aforementioned elements together in a state of pleasingly harmonious resolution whilst creating a band sound that is unmistakably post-modern bop but with added profundities. All the compositions and arrangements are his and the two horn front line provides plenty of opportunity for contrapuntal interchange which put me in mind of the style of the Lee Konitz and Warne Marsh combos of the Lennie Tristano era, albeit driven by a different beat and proclaimed in a more assertive timbre.
Cogently executed solos emerge from the thematic material and everyone gets the opportunity to state their case including the additional musicians he brings in from time to time to augment the core quintet. Trumpeter Ian Cleaver plays a particularly effective role in the title track and, were it a perfect world, the album’s putative hit single` Concrete Caterpillar`, a staccato theme underpinned with a curiously asymmetric hip-hop style backbeat. Frederico Calcagno’s bass clarinet is featured in the final piece, `Superfast Fibre Optic Broadband ‘and in concert with alto, electric piano, guitar and click-clacking percussive effects the band achieves a suitably arresting and novel techno sound that minded me of a `Train and the River` for the digital age.
The aforementioned folk music elements find expression in several of the other pieces with vocalist Beth Aggett delivering a sensitive rendition of a ballad cum lullaby to guitar accompaniment and lyrical obligato from the leader’s alto whilst the quintet’s haunting `Carried to the Common` has an epic quality that evokes visions of northern fells under lowering skies that resonate with the aura of some momentous historical tragedy. A lamentation in the manner of Ornette Coleman’s `Lonely Woman` it represents the album’s big dramatic moment and offers the most powerful example of Newbould’s prowess as a composer, arranger and bandleader fulfilling Nick Lea’s prescient forecast that here is a talent to be watched. I’ve no hesitation in saying how much I’ve enjoyed this music and am confident that those who are keen to stay in tune with what’s `happening` on the contemporary scene will do likewise.
Reviewed by Euan Dixon
ZenneZ Records
Sam Newbould (alto sax & compositions) Bernard van Rossum (tenor sax) Youngwoo Lee (piano) Daniel Nagel (bass) Guy Salamon (drums) with guests Ian Cleaver (trumpet) Billy Marrows (guitar) Beth Aggett (vocal) Frederico Calcagno (bass clarinet)
Recorded in Amsterdam, September 2020
There is a famous saying attributed to Plutarch and quoted in the frontispiece of Ted Gioia’s excellent book `Music: A Subversive History`, that goes, “Music to create harmony, must investigate discord” Certainly this has proved to be true of jazz as an art form given that it bristles with the tensions that arise from confrontations between musical forms and cultural influences. It’s the grit in the mollusc that produces the pearl and in Sam Newbould’s latest disc we have a shining example of what gems emerge when potentially disparate elements are brought together in search of a synthesis.
The elements in question are progressive jazz and rock modes combined with Newbould’s nativist English folk music and pastoral influences, a union celebrated in `Blencathra`, his quintet’s original release that received warm approbation within these pages from our leader Nick. Allied to this intermixture of musical forms are Newbould’s personal feelings regarding “The joy of home mixed with the discomfort of being an outsider”, a condition for which he has coined the term `Bogus Notus`, the title of this latest set.
I have to say that on a first hearing methinks he protests too much for he sounds very much at home leading his Anglo/Dutch band through a playlist of eight confidently expressed originals that bring the aforementioned elements together in a state of pleasingly harmonious resolution whilst creating a band sound that is unmistakably post-modern bop but with added profundities. All the compositions and arrangements are his and the two horn front line provides plenty of opportunity for contrapuntal interchange which put me in mind of the style of the Lee Konitz and Warne Marsh combos of the Lennie Tristano era, albeit driven by a different beat and proclaimed in a more assertive timbre.
Cogently executed solos emerge from the thematic material and everyone gets the opportunity to state their case including the additional musicians he brings in from time to time to augment the core quintet. Trumpeter Ian Cleaver plays a particularly effective role in the title track and, were it a perfect world, the album’s putative hit single` Concrete Caterpillar`, a staccato theme underpinned with a curiously asymmetric hip-hop style backbeat. Frederico Calcagno’s bass clarinet is featured in the final piece, `Superfast Fibre Optic Broadband ‘and in concert with alto, electric piano, guitar and click-clacking percussive effects the band achieves a suitably arresting and novel techno sound that minded me of a `Train and the River` for the digital age.
The aforementioned folk music elements find expression in several of the other pieces with vocalist Beth Aggett delivering a sensitive rendition of a ballad cum lullaby to guitar accompaniment and lyrical obligato from the leader’s alto whilst the quintet’s haunting `Carried to the Common` has an epic quality that evokes visions of northern fells under lowering skies that resonate with the aura of some momentous historical tragedy. A lamentation in the manner of Ornette Coleman’s `Lonely Woman` it represents the album’s big dramatic moment and offers the most powerful example of Newbould’s prowess as a composer, arranger and bandleader fulfilling Nick Lea’s prescient forecast that here is a talent to be watched. I’ve no hesitation in saying how much I’ve enjoyed this music and am confident that those who are keen to stay in tune with what’s `happening` on the contemporary scene will do likewise.
Reviewed by Euan Dixon
