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Double Review
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TRISH CLOWES - A View With A Room
Greenleaf Music: GRE-CD-1094
Trish Clowes: tenor and soprano saxophones; Chris Montague: guitar; Ross Stanley: piano, Rhodes, Hammond organ; James Maddren: drums
Recorded August 31st and September 1st 2021 by Darren Jones at Livingstone Studios, London
While billed as a Trish Clowes album, the continued development of the My Iris quartet is every bit as impressive as the maturity of Clowes’ compositions. This is a welcome return to the studio for the band, following last year’s impressive ‘Live’ album and a new set of original tunes from Clowes. I’ve long been a fan of this band and, as on previous outings, Clowes’ tunes sparkle and fizz with unusual phrasings and switches in tempo and a keen sense of creating small melodies that glitter like gems in the musical settings. As with previous recordings by the band, each player is continuing seeking the spaces in which to develop their own lines but doing so in ways that are entirely supportive of the other players. If this feels a little contradictory, the quartet make it work by the ways in which they are able to listen to each other’s unique voices. Clowes has a readily identifiable sound, particularly on tenor. Montague has a set of guitar moods and sounds by which have become unique to him. On this set, Stanley’s keyboard playing is also poised between supporting the lead instruments and finding space to step further into the limelight. This is especially the case on the exuberant ‘Amber’, track 3 (named for Amber Bauer who is CEO of the charity Donate4Refugees of which Clowes is an ambassador). The repeated refrain marking the rhythm is swapped between piano and guitar, while the other solos, or jointly played to swing behind sax. There is a sort of family resemblance between that track and ‘No idea’, track 5, in the way in which the sax line works over a simple refrain and the ways in which guitar, sax and piano solo against a skipping drum pattern. A band without a bass needs some means of marking rhythm and key changes and while piano and guitar happily swap these roles, it is Maddren’s drums which not only keep the beat but which also subtly mark the key change. This is a very welcome addition to the My Iris canon and an album that I will certainly be including in this year’s ‘best of’ listing.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
Greenleaf Music: GRE-CD-1094
Trish Clowes: tenor and soprano saxophones; Chris Montague: guitar; Ross Stanley: piano, Rhodes, Hammond organ; James Maddren: drums
Recorded August 31st and September 1st 2021 by Darren Jones at Livingstone Studios, London
While billed as a Trish Clowes album, the continued development of the My Iris quartet is every bit as impressive as the maturity of Clowes’ compositions. This is a welcome return to the studio for the band, following last year’s impressive ‘Live’ album and a new set of original tunes from Clowes. I’ve long been a fan of this band and, as on previous outings, Clowes’ tunes sparkle and fizz with unusual phrasings and switches in tempo and a keen sense of creating small melodies that glitter like gems in the musical settings. As with previous recordings by the band, each player is continuing seeking the spaces in which to develop their own lines but doing so in ways that are entirely supportive of the other players. If this feels a little contradictory, the quartet make it work by the ways in which they are able to listen to each other’s unique voices. Clowes has a readily identifiable sound, particularly on tenor. Montague has a set of guitar moods and sounds by which have become unique to him. On this set, Stanley’s keyboard playing is also poised between supporting the lead instruments and finding space to step further into the limelight. This is especially the case on the exuberant ‘Amber’, track 3 (named for Amber Bauer who is CEO of the charity Donate4Refugees of which Clowes is an ambassador). The repeated refrain marking the rhythm is swapped between piano and guitar, while the other solos, or jointly played to swing behind sax. There is a sort of family resemblance between that track and ‘No idea’, track 5, in the way in which the sax line works over a simple refrain and the ways in which guitar, sax and piano solo against a skipping drum pattern. A band without a bass needs some means of marking rhythm and key changes and while piano and guitar happily swap these roles, it is Maddren’s drums which not only keep the beat but which also subtly mark the key change. This is a very welcome addition to the My Iris canon and an album that I will certainly be including in this year’s ‘best of’ listing.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
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This is the third studio album from Trish Clowes’ My Iris project. It’s not that common nowadays for a jazz project to maintain its line-up for this long, and the benefits are clear to behold on this latest offering. Clowes has an idiosyncratic take on contemporary jazz that’s demanding to play but alternates between knotty and accessible for the listener - as epitomised by the jaunty, deceptively straight-ahead sounding jazz-rock of the title track - and her long-time musical associates are now perfectly in tune with her vision and with each other. “The Ness’ has them shifting effortlessly between different textures and timbral densities, ‘Amber’ has a proggy intricacy, ‘Morning Song’ is a pensively ambient ballad, and ‘No Idea’ and “Ayana’ both experiment with different approaches to texture and freedom. ‘Time’ has a lyrical directness, powered by Ross Stanley’s lushly romantic piano,and ‘Almost’ is a atmospheric closer. and Clowes’ clear, light tone on tenor and her sophisticated harmonic imagination are matched by the other players, and the general musical sensibility is perfectly harmonised: there are no clichéd licks in evidence here from any of the players, but nor is there any extraneous avant-garde posturing: just a sense of total commitment to the material.
Reviewed by Eddie Myer
Reviewed by Eddie Myer
