Beats & Pieces Big Band, The Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath, Birmingham, 01/10/2015.

I’ve felt rather proprietorial about the Manchester based Beats & Pieces Big Band (or B&PBB as they shall henceforth be known) since first hearing their début recording, a self produced eponymous EP back in 2010. I believe that I was the first person outside their home city to write about the band and it’s been good to have my judgement vindicated by their rise to national prominence.

With its hand printed cardboard sleeve and the youthful energy and drive of the music the EP embodied the kind of punkish, DIY spirit that Loose Tubes brought to the British jazz scene back in the 1980s. However B&PBB’s director and chief composer Ben Cottrell has denied, despite the obvious similarities, that Loose Tubes were ever a direct influence. Instead he points to 21st century British punk jazz acts such as Acoustic Ladyland plus the Canadian born, New York based contemporary big band composer Darcy James Argue as more significant inspirations.

B&PBB’s reputation continued to grow throughout 2011, a year which saw them win the European Young Jazz Artist Award at the Burghausen Jazz Festival in Germany as well as delivering headline performances at London Jazz Festival and Ronnie Scott’s.

The success of the band saw them being taken under the wing of the influential London based Serious organisation but B&PBB nevertheless retained a large degree of autonomy and released their professionally recorded début album “Big Ideas” on their own Efpi Record label in 2012. Efpi is as much a musicians collective as a record label and numerous other releases have also appeared featuring like minded musicians both from within and beyond the band. 

“Big Ideas” re-worked some of the pieces from the EP and consolidated the band’s reputation as one of the most promising and exciting jazz acts around. It took a while for the follow up to emerge with “All In” finally appearing in 2015, again on the band’s own Efpi label. The album was recorded at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios, one of the only facilities with a live room capable of hosting B&PBB’s fourteen strong line up. The music evidences Cottrell’s growing compositional maturity but still retains much of the band’s old spirit with the title specifically chosen to emphasise their collective identity.

I’ve been lucky enough to witness B&PBB perform live on a couple of previous occasions, both of them festival appearances, the first at the Mostly Jazz Festival in nearby Moseley Park in 2011, the other at Hay Festival in 2012. I was therefore looking forward to seeing them for the first time in the intimacy of a pub/club environment and they didn’t disappoint.

As ever the band were led by director and composer Ben Cottrell and although there have been the inevitable personnel changes over the years many of the original members are still in place. Tonight’s performance saw Birmingham’s own Chris Young guesting with the band as he stepped into the front line on alto and soprano saxes. The rest of the band lined up;

Sam Rapley - baritone & tenor sax
Anthony Brown - tenor & soprano sax
Owen Bryce, Graham South, Nick Walters - trumpet & flugel
Rich McVeigh, Simon Lodge, Ed Horsey - trombones
Anton Hunter - guitar
Richard Jones - keyboards
Stu Wilson - acoustic & electric bass
Finlay Panter - drums

Much of the first set was sourced from “All In”, the band’s latest album beginning with the visceral group dynamics of “Rocky”, a collective onslaught that grabbed the listener’s attention from the very start. In the smaller of the two music rooms at the Hare & Hounds the sheer volume of the band took a little adjusting to.

Also from the new album came “Pop”, introduced by Panter’s drums and featuring Cottrell on additional guitar (he’s also a highly accomplished clarinettist). With its upbeat grooves, rousing ‘cop show’ style theme and trademark dynamic contrasts this was great fun with trumpeter Nick Walters impressing as the featured soloist.

Many of Cottrell’s titles are pithy descriptions of the music itself. Following “Rocky” and “Pop” came “Jazz Walk” from the “Big Ideas” album, a tune based around Wilson’s acoustic bass walk (he’d played electric on the first two numbers). The guesting Chris Young got a big cheer from the Birmingham audience for his alto solo as he shared the spotlight with guitarist Anton Hunter, a founder member of the band and an integral part of the core group sound.

As I recall “Toan” was next up, a tune dating right back to the band’s début EP. This featured a solo keyboard introduction from Jones plus a mercurial soprano solo from the impressive Brown. Lodge and South also delivered with an absorbing dialogue for trombone and trumpet.

Perhaps the most impressive item in the first set was Cottrell’s epic composition “Havmann” (meaning ‘man from the sea’) , a piece inspired by an Anthony Gormley statue that stands in a fjord in Mo I Rana in Northern Norway. Efpi has strong links with Scandinavia and Cottrell initially wrote the piece for the Norwegian band Ensemble Denada. The piece is ambitious and broad in scope with a rich array of colours, textures and dynamics. It developed from an ethereal, atmospheric introduction featuring Hunter’s e-bow and finger slide generated guitar FX via Jones’ keyboard motifs and the warm sound of muted trombones. Unashamedly borrowing from vintage prog rock this was a piece with a strong narrative arc and a definite cinematic quality. The featured soloist here was Graham South on flugel horn, his atmospherically smouldering solo judiciously enhanced by Walters’ subtle electronic embellishments. 

It might have been tempting to end the first set there but instead the band raised the energy levels again with “Elf”, a tune from their first album and a feature for Sam Rapley, mainly heard on baritone tonight but here letting rip on tenor above a funky drum and bass groove and some rousing big band charts. With Panter at the drums proving to be a real driving force this was a high energy end to an exciting first set.

The band dipped deeper into their back catalogue for the second set beginning with “Bake”, a tune that appears both on “Big Ideas” and the début EP. Propelled by Panter’s relentless drum pulse this stirring call to arms featured solos from Jones on keyboards, Young on alto and finally Panter himself at the drums. An explosive start.

Also from the first album “Three” featured loose limbed grooves and Loose Tubes like horn voicings with Walters on trumpet and Rapley on baritone taking the honours as the featured soloists.

Returning to the new album Cottrell denied that the title of “Rain” had anything to do with the band coming from Manchester. This statement wasn’t entirely jocular, the inspiration of the tune actually comes from the minimalist composer Steve Reich and his pioneering piece “It’s Going To Rain”. The Reich influence was embodied by Jones’ recurring keyboard motif which was allied to the sound of muted brass and eventually formed the basis for Jones’ own solo.

“All In” also features an extraordinary Cottrell arrangement of David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance”, a heavily disguised re-imagination based around brooding, noirish, richly textured horns and a radically slowed down bass and drum groove before exploding into life in the latter part of the tune to give a kind of New Orleans ‘second line’ effect albeit with added electronica.

Cottrell provided additional guitar on the next piece which was unannounced but I suspect may have been “Hendo”, also from the band’s latest album. Underpinned by Wilson’s electric bass groove and some distinctive rhythm guitar patterns the piece featured an incisive alto solo from Young and some rousing big band passages.

From the same album the gorgeous horn chorale, “Fairytale” seemed to borrow from the Northern brass band tradition with its warm brass and reed textures and cosy, nostalgic glow.

To round off the evening the band went right back to their initial EP and the incendiary “Djimi” fuelled by Hunter’s clangorous guitar and featuring a trumpet solo from Walters incorporating the sounds of both the muted and open bell. Hunter’s muscular riffing then provided the link into the final solo of the evening from keyboard player Jones.

Overall this was a very enjoyable evening of music from a highly accomplished band. Cottrell has been in great demand as a composer and arranger for others in fields ranging from classical to pop but it’s good to see him leading Beats & Pieces again. The skill evident in his composing and arranging for this group makes it easy to see why he has been so busy elsewhere.

The band were almost too big for the smaller room at the Hare & Hounds. They generated a mighty collective noise but there were one or two sound difficulties which sometimes detracted from the music, and it certainly looked very hot and crowded up there on stage. Minor misgivings aside however B&PBB remain a highly exciting unit with a distinct group identity, whatever the changes in personnel, and after a personal three year gap it was good to see them making music together again. Despite Cottrell’s other commitments I’m sure we’ll be hearing more from them in the future. 

Beats & Pieces have the following performances scheduled;

Wednesday 18th November 2015 - The Wardrobe, Leeds

Thursday 19th November 2015 - Students Union, Sheffield University

see http://www.beatsnpieces.net for further details