Winner of the Parliamentary Jazz Award for Best Media, 2019

Review

Josh Kemp

Rare Groove

image

by Ian Mann

October 04, 2016

/ ALBUM

“Rare Groove” is an unpretentious, swinging album that makes no attempt to hide its debt to the classic 'Blue Note' sound of yore.

Josh Kemp

“Rare Groove”

(FullTone Records FULTCD012)

Saxophonist and composer Josh Kemp came relatively late to the jazz ranks having graduated in philosophy at Oxford University before going on to study jazz and composition at both the Guildhall and Trinity schools of music. “Rare Groove” represents his fifth album as a leader and follows in the wake of the acclaimed “Tone Poetry” (FullTone Records), released in early 2014.

Prior to this Kemp had recorded “Animus”, a quartet date for 33 Records in 2008 and two earlier releases featuring a group co-led with pianist Tim Lapthorn (“Animation Suspended, 2001 and “Kukus”, 2003).

Kemp has worked with musicians such as trumpeter Martin Shaw, guitarist Carl Orr, drummer Clark Tracey and vocalist Liz Fletcher. He is also a key member of the Walthamstow based E17 Collective of jazz musicians, playing and writing for the E17 Large Ensemble.  As a composer Kemp has also been commissioned to write new works for the Cambridge Jazz Festival.

“Tone Poetry” was recorded with a stellar quartet, later dubbed The Jazz Prophets, that included Lapthorn on piano plus bassist Mick Hutton and drummer Jon Scott. The album garnered a good deal of critical praise, not least for the rounded enormity of Kemp’s tenor saxophone tone. Kemp, a hard working musician who plays around 200 gigs a year toured the album extensively and I was disappointed at having to miss his gig at The Hive in Shrewsbury, thwarted by the floods that plagued much of the UK in early 2014.

“Rare Groove” finds Kemp fronting a very different band and playing in a very different jazz format. This is Kemp’s organ record and finds him working with a core trio of Ross Stanley on Hammond B3 and Chris Higginbottom at the drums. There are also guest appearances from trumpeters Steve Fishwick and Joe Auckland plus guitarist Jez Franks. The music is heavily influenced by the classic Blue Note albums of the hard bop era with Kemp contributing seven original tunes in the idiom alongside three jazz standards plus a jazz adaptation of a well known theme by J.S. Bach. 

Kemp’s album notes offer a degree of explanation of the influences behind the tunes beginning with the opening piece “Shrift”, an original which is loosely based on the famous George Gershwin “I Got Rhythm” chord sequence. It’s a lively introduction featuring the fiery, brassy soloing of guest trumpeter Steve Fishwick alongside the bluesy bluster of Kemp’s tenor. Ross Stanley, the first call organist of UK jazz, impresses on the B3 as Chris Higginbottom turns in a busy and propulsive performance as part of this bass-less ensemble.

“Spin” is the second tune to pay homage to what Kemp describes as “much played jazz forms”. The piece is an extended twelve bar blues which acts the vehicle for solos from Kemp on muscular r’n'b tinged tenor, Fishwick on ebullient high register trumpet and Stanley on gospel inflected Hammond. This recording represented the first time that Kemp had worked with Fishwick but one would hardly have thought it given the rapport generated between the two musicians. 

Several of the pieces were inspired by Kemp’s young daughter Rosie including “Turn on the Dark”,  a child’s way of saying she was ready for lights out. The tune itself is a soulful strut that combines muscular, infectious grooves with correspondingly urgent and effusive soloing from Kemp on tenor, Stanley on Hammond and guest musician Jez Franks on guitar.   

The Harry Warren composition “The More I See You” is the first standard of the set and is treated in the same forthright, no-nonsense style as the first three tracks. Kemp’s tenor honks bluesily, Stanley’s Hammond soars and wails and Higginbottom drives things forward crisply on this first item from the core trio.

Also by the trio Kemp’s original “Stirred not Shaken” combines elements of “Sweet Georgia Brown” and the Thelonious Monk tune “Straight no Chaser”. Kemp describes it as a “mash up” and it’s a hugely enjoyable one with Higginbottom’s drums paving the way for the unmistakably Monkish theme. Played with great verve and humour the whole thing is great fun with Kemp’s gruff tenor snaking around the grooves generated by Stanley and Higginbottom. There are also vivacious features for both organ and drums before the close.

Kemp states that Bach’s “Air on a G String” was chosen “because the supreme beauty of the melody line is combined with a harmonic sequence which is refreshingly enjoyable to improvise on”. The tune will be familiar to many listeners as the one featured in the ‘Hamlet’ cigar ads many years ago. Stanley’s church like organ provides the backdrop for Kemp’s thoughtful saxophone extemporisations as Higginbottom provides tastefully brushed support. The closing stages of the piece include a delightful solo sax cadenza.

“Take It Or Leave it” is another tune inspired by Kemp’s young daughter, “a testament to her negotiating skills even at the age of three!” he explains. Franks returns as the quartet improvise around the angular but subtly funky theme with Stanley taking the first solo followed by Kemp on tenor and Franks on guitar, these two exchanging lengthening phrases in increasingly thrilling and bluesy fashion.

“Angel of the North” was written during a 30 date tour undertaken by Kemp in 2014 (probably the one I missed out on!) and pays homage not only to the famous Anthony Gormley statue but also to the warmth of the welcome that Kemp and his band received in the jazz clubs of the North of England. The tune features a guest appearance by trumpeter Joe Auckland, like Franks one of Kemp’s regular collaborators in the E17 Collective. Auckland impresses with his clarity and purity of tone as he states the elegant theme prior to stretching out as a powerful and fluent soloist alongside Kemp and Stanley.

The Rogers & Hart song “You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To” is the final item in a clutch of standards that Kemp claims to have been given “additional tweaks to keep them sounding fresh”.
It’s certainly an interesting arrangement in a broadly bebop style with Kemp’s relentlessly probing tenor sharing the solos with Stanley’s Hammond.

Kemp dedicates “Me Time” to “all tired parents of young children”. The tune itself is livelier than the title might suggest, a vigorous shuffle that incorporates solos from guest guitarist Franks, arguably his best and most inventive of the set, plus Kemp on tenor.

The album concludes with the sound of the core trio and the Kemp original “Easy to Remember”. It’s the album’s only genuine ballad and features the warm tone of Kemp’s tenor alongside the gentle swell of Stanley’s Hammond plus the sympathetic support of Higginbottom’s brushed drums. Stanley ups the ante and stretches out more on his solo but essentially this is a divine ballad performance and a welcome reminder of Kemp’s expressiveness at slower tempos. It’s arguable that perhaps more tracks in this vein would have improved the balance of the album as a whole. 

“Rare Groove” is an unpretentious, swinging album that makes no attempt to hide its debt to the classic ‘Blue Note’ sound of yore.  As such it’s ultimately less distinguished than “Tone Poetry” but there’s still much to enjoy with the core trio and their guests all acquitting themselves well. 

However the best place to hear this type of music is in a live jazz club situation and there’s nothing better than seeing a fully fledged Hammond complete with Leslie cabinet being put through its paces by the estimable Mr. Ross Stanley.

Kemp and his colleagues are currently touring this album. Forthcoming dates are listed below;

  OCTOBER
9     Pizza Express Jazz Club, 10 Dean Street London *ALBUM LAUNCH*
16   The Oval Tavern, 131 Oval Rd, Croydon CR0 6BR
18   Southampton Jazz Club, Talking Heads, The Maple Leaf, 16-22 The Polygon, SO15 2BN
19   The Listening Room@The Woodman, Ide Hill, Sevenoaks TN14 6BU
21   The Verdict Jazz Club, 159 Edward St, Brighton BN2 0JB
24   Ronnie Scotts, 47 Frith St, London W1D 4HT
25   Baker Street, 25-27 Wood St, Swindon SN1 4AN
30   North Devon Jazz Club, Beaver Inn, Appledore, North Devon EX39 1RY

NOVEMBER
1     St Ives Jazz Club, Western Hotel, St Ives, Cornwall TR26 2ND
2     The Fringe Jazz Club, Clifton Village, Bristol BS8 4BZ
17   Cambridge Jazz Festival@The Hidden Rooms, The Basement, 5-7 Jesus Ln CB5 8BA
24   The Players Theatre, 59 Church St, Davenham, Northwich, Cheshire CW9 8NF
25   Wakefield Jazz Club, Eastmoor Rd, Wakefield WF1 3RR
26   The Globe Jazz Pub, 11 Railway Street, Newcastle NE4 7AD
27   Seven Jazz Leeds, Seven Arts, 31A Harrogate Rd, Leeds LS7 3PD

For further information please visit http://www.joshkemp.com

blog comments powered by Disqus