TOM HARRISON – Unfolding in Tempo
Lyte Records – LR038
Tom Harrison (alto sax) Cleveland Watkiss (vocals) Robert Mitchell (piano) Daniel Casimir (bass) David Lyttle (drums)
Recorded live at The Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham and The Pizza Express Jazz Club, Soho, February 2015.
These live recordings represent my introduction to the work of Tom Harrison and capture him in performance with vocalist extraordinaire, Cleveland Watkiss in presentations from their `Ellington Project` tour. As you would expect all the tunes have Ellington associations; are either by The Duke or Strayhorn or taken from the orchestra’s repertoire as in the case of `The Minor Goes Muggin` which is credited to Sy Oliver. Watkiss plays a prominent role in the delivery of all of these but very much as a member of the band rather than the featured vocalist with a band in tow. His style is audacious and exploratory often veering away from the formal lyrics to include digressions of his own invention and even, in one case, a bit of personal biography. He also employs scat, vocalese, dialogue and glossolalia, as well as the inevitable locomotive sounds in `Take The A Train`, to enlarge his improvisational technique, at times engaging in call and response passages with the audience to their obvious delight. Mostly this works fine and only occasionally do his eccentricities irritate.
It is, however, Tom Harrison’s disc and he proves to be a fine, accomplished player, not in thrall to any particular stylistic convention but reminding me a bit of John Handy in his ability to push the envelope without distorting melody or tone in a way that departs radically from the music’s fundamental ethos, though it should be said that the overall sound is more hard-bop than swing-era oriented. An example of this is particularly evident in the final track which is an unaccompanied version of `Warm Valley` where he captures the spirit of Hodges’ playing without actually sounding like him and takes the music on a journey to more challenging environments.
The remaining members of the band also contribute massively: `Things Ain’t What They Used To Be` pits Morrison and Watkiss against a powerfully resonant bass ‘n drum backing with timely percussive accents and pressure building press rolls heightening the tension. Casmir also gets a beautifully captured extended cadenza at the opening of `The Intimacy of the Blues` and Mitchell’s expressive pianism impresses at every appearance all of which makes for a highly enjoyable musical experience that clearly thrilled the audiences in Cheltenham and Soho and will do the same for you.
Reviewed by Euan Dixon
Lyte Records – LR038
Tom Harrison (alto sax) Cleveland Watkiss (vocals) Robert Mitchell (piano) Daniel Casimir (bass) David Lyttle (drums)
Recorded live at The Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham and The Pizza Express Jazz Club, Soho, February 2015.
These live recordings represent my introduction to the work of Tom Harrison and capture him in performance with vocalist extraordinaire, Cleveland Watkiss in presentations from their `Ellington Project` tour. As you would expect all the tunes have Ellington associations; are either by The Duke or Strayhorn or taken from the orchestra’s repertoire as in the case of `The Minor Goes Muggin` which is credited to Sy Oliver. Watkiss plays a prominent role in the delivery of all of these but very much as a member of the band rather than the featured vocalist with a band in tow. His style is audacious and exploratory often veering away from the formal lyrics to include digressions of his own invention and even, in one case, a bit of personal biography. He also employs scat, vocalese, dialogue and glossolalia, as well as the inevitable locomotive sounds in `Take The A Train`, to enlarge his improvisational technique, at times engaging in call and response passages with the audience to their obvious delight. Mostly this works fine and only occasionally do his eccentricities irritate.
It is, however, Tom Harrison’s disc and he proves to be a fine, accomplished player, not in thrall to any particular stylistic convention but reminding me a bit of John Handy in his ability to push the envelope without distorting melody or tone in a way that departs radically from the music’s fundamental ethos, though it should be said that the overall sound is more hard-bop than swing-era oriented. An example of this is particularly evident in the final track which is an unaccompanied version of `Warm Valley` where he captures the spirit of Hodges’ playing without actually sounding like him and takes the music on a journey to more challenging environments.
The remaining members of the band also contribute massively: `Things Ain’t What They Used To Be` pits Morrison and Watkiss against a powerfully resonant bass ‘n drum backing with timely percussive accents and pressure building press rolls heightening the tension. Casmir also gets a beautifully captured extended cadenza at the opening of `The Intimacy of the Blues` and Mitchell’s expressive pianism impresses at every appearance all of which makes for a highly enjoyable musical experience that clearly thrilled the audiences in Cheltenham and Soho and will do the same for you.
Reviewed by Euan Dixon
