Winner of the Parliamentary Jazz Award for Best Media, 2019

Review

Mike Collins

And suddenly, evening

image

by Ian Mann

March 13, 2015

/ ALBUM

An enjoyable mainstream album featuring some excellent playing and an interesting selection of material.

Mike Collins

“And suddenly, evening”

(Suitepieces Records spr0002)

Mike Collins is a pianist and composer based in Bath. He has been an active figure on the jazz scene in the South West of England and South Wales for many years and has accompanied guest soloists of the calibre of saxophonists Stan Sulzmann and Julian Siegel. He has learnt from fellow pianists Simon Purcell, Nikki Iles and Liam Noble and has developed into a highly accomplished jazz musician, as this latest recording amply demonstrates.

Although Collins once led a quintet with Get The Blessing trumpeter Pete Judge his regular working unit has usually been the trio. In 2009 the line-up of Collins, bassist Dorian Sutton and drummer Trevor Davies recorded the album “Suite Gorgeous” which is still available from Collins’ website http://www.mikecollinstrio.com
The album also includes the saxophone playing of guest Lee Goodall who appears on three of that album’s eight cuts.

Collins’ latest album sees Newport based Goodall returning in a full time capacity alongside bassist Ashley John Long, another musician resident on the Welsh side of the Severn Bridge. The line up is completed by Bristol based drummer Greg White.

“And suddenly, evening” takes its title from the Italian poem “Ed e surbito sera” by Salvatore Quasimodo and combines three Collins originals with an interesting mix of outside material including a couple of well known jazz standards. In this sense the record follows a similar format to its predecessor “Suite Gorgeous”.

The album commences with “On The Lake”, a piece written by one time Weather Report drummer Peter Erskine for his 1992 solo album for ECM “You Never Know”, a recording that featured the pianistic talents of the great John Taylor, surely an inspiration for Collins. A gently atmospheric and lyrical solo piano intro eventually leads to the main theme which is stated by Goodall’s soprano sax. The tune unfolds slowly and elegantly with Collins’ gently rolling piano accompanied by Long’s sonorous bass and White’s delicately brushed drums. Goodall’s lightly airy soprano solo is a delight as is the following double bass feature where Long’s highly melodic playing is enhanced by White’s brushes and Collins’ subtle comping. A more freely structured coda concludes this beautiful opening piece with Collins and his colleagues positively enhancing the quality of Erskine’s writing with an exceptional group performance.

“Grieg Is Here” turns out to be a slyly funky trio outing with a catchy melody and a deep groove. Collins’ stretches out on a solo that combines elements of Monk and Jarrett while Long gets another opportunity to demonstrate why he’s one of the most exciting bass soloists around. I’ve remarked before that if Long ever moved to London he’d soon be in great demand on the capital’s jazz scene. However he seems happy to remain in Cardiff where he combines his jazz career with sessions and orchestral work as one of Europe’s leading players of baroque double bass. 

A gently swinging arrangement of Cole Porter’s “Everything I Love” sees Goodall return to the fold with a fluent opening solo. He’s followed by the imaginative Collins who manages to keep things fresh and cliché free. Long and White provide vivacious, subtly propulsive support.

Alec Wilder’s “Blackberry Winter” is a spacious, country tinged ballad arrangement for the trio that features Collins at his most lyrical and melodic, his reflective, melancholic solo complemented by a rich bass undertow and delicately brushed drums. Long’s bass feature also emphasises the melodic side of his playing but without sacrificing anything of his huge tone. The piece ends as it began with Collins solo at the piano. 

The Collins original “Flat Six” is a playful, Latin tinged piece that features the versatile Goodall on tenor, the saxophonist relishing the opportunity to stretch out while being urged on by White’s drums. Collins’ own, vaguely Jarrett-ish solo eventually leads us back to the catchy, ticking theme.

Silvio Rodriguez’s “Oleo De Mujer Con Sombrero” first appeared in a jazz arrangement on Bobo Stenson’s 1997 album for ECM “War Orphans”. It is the Stenson version that was the inspiration for this even more pared down take on the tune as Collins interprets it duo format accompanied only by the bass of Ashley John Long. It’s a delightful performance, melodic but inventive and with a good spirit of interactive support. Long’s melodic but deeply resonant bass solo is a particular delight. Such is their understanding that I believe the pair occasionally play gigs in this format.

Collins’ final original offering is “ReProm”, a breezy, lightly swinging quartet piece that sounds vaguely like a jazz standard. It’s the vehicle for relaxed but expansive solos by Collins on piano and Goodall on tenor plus a virtuoso bass feature for Long.

The album closes with a warm ballad reading of Thelonious Monk’s “Ruby My Dear” with Goodall’s breathy, sumptuous tenor sax complemented by Collins’ own lyricism plus the sympathetic and sensitive support of an excellent rhythm section. 

Recorded to high technical standards at Fieldgate Studios in Penarth by the engineering team of Andrew Lawson and Peter Beckmann “And suddenly, evening” is an enjoyable mainstream album featuring some excellent playing and an interesting selection of material. The implication is that Mike Collins is a musician who will be well worth seeing live in whatever instrumental context you might find him. I’ve recently received glowing reports of his contribution as a last minute dep to a performance at Café Jazz in Cardiff by Coltrane Dedication, the barnstorming band co-led by saxophonists Lyndon Owen and Caractacus Downes.

Away from the piano Collins is a keen fellow jazz blogger who contributes reviews to London Jazz News and also runs his own blog Jazzy Blog Man at https://jazzyblogman.wordpress.com


blog comments powered by Disqus