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Review

Tim Garland Quartet

Tim Garland Electric Quartet, The Hive Music & Media Centre, Shrewsbury, 14/01/2017

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by Ian Mann

January 16, 2017

/ LIVE

Ian Mann watches saxophonist Tim Garland and his quartet get 2017 off to an electrifying start. He also takes a look at their award winning album "One".

Tim Garland Electric Quartet, The Hive Music & Media Centre, Shrewsbury, 14/01/2017.

2017 got off to a suitably electrifying start with this performance by saxophonist and composer Tim Garland and his all star quartet featuring Jason Rebello (keyboards), Ant Law (guitar) and Hive favourite Asaf Sirkis (drums & percussion).

Shrewsbury Jazz Network’s first event of the year was totally sold out, I even saw disappointed potential audience members being turned away, and Garland and his colleagues thrived upon the enthusiasm and encouragement generated by the Shrewsbury crowd.

Garland is a highly creative musician who has worked with such famous names as pianists Chick Corea and Gwilym Simcock, vibraphonist Joe Locke and drummer Bill Bruford as well as leading his own projects. He has frequently created music that has straddled the boundaries between the jazz, classical and folk traditions plus the numerous sub genres to be found within these categories.

Something of this remains with the newly christened Electric Quartet. The group members first appeared together on the 2012 double set “Songs To The North Sky”, Garland’s début for Edition Records and an album that explored both Garland’s jazz and classical leanings. Although the work featured several other musicians the quartet featuring Rebello, Law and Sirkis emerged as Garland’s regular working band and I was lucky enough to witness and cover a performance by the group at the Arena Theatre in Wolverhampton in April 2015. This was a hugely successful and highly enjoyable event and featured the quartet mainly playing material from the “Songs To The North Sky” album. A review of this performance can be read here;  http://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/tim-garland-quartet-arena-theatre-wolverhampton-17-04-2015/

Since then the band have recorded a second album for Edition featuring a set of nine brand new Garland compositions and with an increasing emphasis on rock and fusion influences - “we’ve geared up and plugged in” explains Garland. The resultant album, simply titled “One”, has garnered a compelling amount of critical acclaim and has just won the accolade of “Album of the Year” for 2016 in the recently published Jazzwise Magazine critics poll. 

Tonight’s performance at The Hive was very different to the one in Wolverhampton almost two years ago as the focus of the material shifted to the “One” album and the group placed a greater emphasis on electronic sounds, this in part necessitated by the absence of an acoustic piano at The Hive. Rebello was playing a Midi 88 Keyboard Controller capable of producing a variety of keyboard sounds, notably acoustic and electric piano, organ and synthesiser. I could read all the tune titles off Rebello’s accompanying lap top which made my job all the easier, I can tell you. Garland’s sax sounds were judiciously treated via an effects unit and various pedals while Law deployed a range of guitars, including six, eight and twelve string models. With this wide sonic canvas available to the band the lack of an orthodox bass player was virtually unnoticeable. 

The performance began with Garland and the quartet metaphorically grabbing the audience by their lapels with the dazzling “Sama’i For Peace”, the opening track on the “One” album. Rebello’s relentless piano vamp allied to Sirkis’ precise but powerful drumming fuelled Garland’s high octane sax soloing as he produced rousing skirls and swirls of notes from his soprano, Law’s guitar sometimes doubling up on the melody line. Meanwhile Rebello deployed the classic Rhodes electric piano sound on a keyboard solo that saw no reduction in the energy levels. We were also treated to a closing drum feature from the ever effervescent Sirkis, his virtuoso tub rattling accompanied by Law’s power chords and Garland’s auxiliary percussion. The recorded version includes a guest appearance by the Egyptian percussionist Hossam Ramzy. As band and audience gathered their breath Garland explained that the tune had been based on a speeded up Middle Eastern rhythm in ten - “it’s supposed to be slow and stately” he said “but that was before we got hold of it” . 

Before re-locating back to London Garland spent several years living in the North East where he first founded his Lighthouse Trio, a group featuring Sirkis and pianist Gwilym Simcock which eventually metamorphosed into this current band. From those years came “Tyne Song”, a tune from one of Garland’s earlier albums intended as a celebration of the Tyne as a working river.  This was an altogether gentler, more atmospheric affair with Garland’s electronically enhanced tenor sax shadowed by Law’s semi-acoustic guitar representing a musical depiction of ships slipping in and out of view during one of the famous Tyne fogs. It was the guitarist who took the first solo, this followed by an engaging sax and piano dialogue between Garland and Rebello with Sirkis’ mallet rumbles also adding much to the atmosphere.

From “One” the piece “Brand New Year” represented an appropriate choice for January. I suspect that this may have been the first piece written for the new album as it actually made an appearance at Wolverhampton a couple of years back. Featuring the ringing sounds of Law’s twelve string guitar, Sirkis’ briskly brushed drum grooves and Garland’s dancing, brightly melodic soprano the piece exuded the kind of warm optimism inherent in its title. Rebello also impressed with a keyboard solo deploying an acoustic piano sound. The vastly experienced Rebello, who has worked as a sideman with Sting, Jeff Beck and Manu Katche as well as leading his own groups, impressed throughout the course of the evening. 

Garland still likes to dip into the standards repertoire but likes to put his own, contemporary stamp on the tradition. The quartet’s version of “Good Morning Heartache”, immortalised by Billie Holiday began with echoed tenor sax cushioned by Rebello’s string synth sounds before evolving into a more conventional jazz ballad performance in an arrangement that was both musically effective and emotionally involving.

The first set concluded with “Zyriab”, a much covered tune written by the flamenco guitarist Paco de Lucia. Garland played the piece when he was a member of Chick Corea’s band and it’s obviously become something of a personal favourite for him and also featured at the Wolverhampton show. Announcing the tune Garland told us the tale of his meeting with up de Lucia at an airport during his touring days with Corea.  The song itself was introduced by the semi-acoustic sounds of Law’s distinctive cutaway or ‘air’ guitar and featured Garland on soprano as Sirkis tapped out flamenco style rhythms via a combination of brushes and sticks. Garland and Law traded solos before Rebello took over with a feverish piano solo that was matched by the power and fluency of Sirkis’ drumming. Finally Garland, Law and Rebello traded phrases in flamboyant flamenco fashion and Sirkis responded with a series of volcanic drum breaks. It was a scintillating conclusion to a quite brilliant first half. 

Set two commenced with “Foretold”, another piece from the “One” album. It proved to be another attention grabbing set opener with a heavy sound featuring treated tenor sax, malevolent electric guitar chording and dirty sounding electric piano. The recorded version is another of the pieces to feature the percussion of Hossam Ramzy and tonight’s performance was climaxed by a Sirkis drum feature.

Garland announced “The Eternal Greeting” as being a piece all about the idea of jazz being “open water” and a vehicle for individual and collective improvisation. It was introduced by the distinctive sound of Sirkis on udu (or clay pot) and featured Law on acoustic guitar, Garland on tenor and Rebeello on a variety of piano and synth sounds.

The new composition “Paradigm Road” was tonight performed for the first time in public – a world première in Shrewsbury! This saw the Electric Quartet adopting a classic ‘fusion’ sound with distinct funk elements. Garland took the first solo on tenor, playing with his customary panache but it was Law’s Holdsworth like excursion on eight string electric guitar that really set jaws dropping. Meanwhile Rebello demonstrated his skills as an electric keyboard player par excellence with his array of Rhodes and synth sounds.

By way of contrast “One Morning” was an older piece, one originally written for the Lighthouse Trio. The mood was also very different and much more impressionistic with Garland deploying atmospheric electronic and looping effects on his tenor as Sirkis played udu and Law added acoustic guitar. Meanwhile Rebello adopted an acoustic piano sound as he shared the solos with the leader.

This second set concluded with “Prototype”, another sturdy slice of archetypal fusion inspired by the music of Steps Ahead, featuring the late Michael Brecker, and dedicated to Bill Bruford, in whose group Earthworks Garland once played. To these ears the music was very much reminiscent of Earthworks with its dizzying unison passages, abrupt emotional and dynamic contrasts and virtuoso individual soloing with Rebello again deploying a variety of keyboard sounds, including organ. Meanwhile Sirkis’ propulsive, pin sharp drumming would have earned the approval of Mr Bruford himself. 

At the end the audience responded with the kind of reaction that is rarely seen at a jazz gig in Shrewsbury. There was whooping, hollering, foot stomping, whistling (courtesy of Claudia), and a partial standing ovation. Jazz audiences in the provinces are rarely quite so demonstrative, but in this case it was, needless to say, thoroughly deserved.

SJN’s Sue Watkins thanked the band, but didn’t really have to tempt them back. After a reception like that an encore was an absolute shoo-in. This proved to be Garland’s arrangement of the Bill Evans classic “Blue In Green” from the Miles Davis album “Kind Of Blue”. Garland has been playing the tune since the Lighthouse Trio” days but this new “spacey version” featured Garland’s soprano above the interlocking backing of piano, guitar and brushed drums with solos from Rebello and Garland.

The general consensus of opinion was that this was one of the best gigs ever staged at the Hive by SJN and it certainly got the 2017 programme off to a terrific start. It will be hard to follow such a stellar line up but SJN have planned an interesting and diverse programme for the first half of 2017 and is to be hoped that they will continue to be as well supported by audiences as they were tonight. Details of forthcoming events can be found at http://www.shrewsburyjazznetwork.co.uk

Meanwhile the much lauded “One” album deserves the attention of every discerning jazz listener. Forget any prejudices you may have about fusion, this is rich, bright, colourful, intelligent, rhythmic music that draws upon a myriad of influences. The track listing also includes the compositions “Colours Of Night” and “Youkay”, both of which would have fitted seamlessly into tonight’s programme. There’s also the slower, more atmospheric, folk tinged “The Gathering Dark” plus Garland’s passionate protest against the global arms trade “Pity The Poor Arms Dealer” with the lyrics delivered with soul and passion by guest vocalist Dionne Bennett from Edition label mates Slowly Rolling Camera.

 

   

 

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