Billy Marrows Band

“Dancing On Bentwood Chairs”

(Self Released)

Billy Marrows – guitar, baritone guitar, loops, Chris Williams – alto sax, Huw V Williams – double bass, Jay Davis – drums

“Dancing On Bentwood Chairs” (I’ll explain the story behind the title later) is the long awaited debut release from this quartet led by guitarist Billy Marrows.

It’s not Marrows’ first album as a leader, 2024’s “Penelope”, dedicated to his late mother, was recorded with a twelve piece chamber jazz ensemble that Marrows dubbed Grande Familia.The recording was very well received, earning a nomination for a Parliamentary Jazz Award.
My review of the album can be found here;
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/billy-marrows-and-grande-familia-penelope

Later in 2024 Marrows followed this with the digital only release “Mount Tibidabo, recorded with a scaled down sextet version of Grande Familia. 2025 then saw Discus Music release “The Penelope Album Live”, documented at a full Grande Familia performance at the Pizza Express Jazz Club, Soho, London.

In addition to the Billy Marrows Band and Grande Familia Marrows also leads an octet and his own jazz Big Band.

A graduate of London’s Royal Academy of Music Marrows is a frequent award winner and was the recipient of the 2019 Eddie Harvey Jazz Arranger of the Year Award and both the 2016 small ensemble and 2018 big band categories of the Dankworth Prize for Jazz Composition.

I first became aware of Marrows’ playing when he appeared as a member of Asterope, a quintet led by saxophonist Tom Barford, at the 2016 Brecon Jazz Weekend. He subsequently appeared on Barford’s debut album “Bloomer” (2018), which was recorded with the Asterope line up. Review here;
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/tom-barford-bloomer

Marrows has also appeared on recordings by the group OK Aurora, led by drummer and composer Rod Oughton, and Di-Cysgodion, a quartet led by bassist and composer Huw V Williams. He has also recorded with saxophonists Harry Brunt and Sam Newbould and worked with the Patchwork Jazz Orchestra. Other artists with whom he has appeared include saxophonists Tom Ridout and Chelsea Carmichael, bassist Max Kahn, fellow guitarist John Parricelli, and the Docklands Sinfonia.

This new quartet recording features twelve original compositions from the pen of Marrows that draw inspiration from a variety of sources, among them family, literature and landscape. The composer’s album notes offer brief insights into the stories and inspirations behind each tune.

Acknowledged musical influences include Weather Report,  US saxophonist and composer Henry Threadgill and big band composer Darcy James Argue.

The title of the opening “The Cock-Eared Optimist” references a much loved and much missed family pet, a cat named Millie. There’s a suitably feline quality about the slinky rhythmic grooves and Marrows’ gently wheedling guitar solo. Chris Williams enters the frame fairly late, doubling up with Marrows on the melody before delivering his own solo. Bassist Huw V Williams then comes to the fore, his solo also exhibiting a feline grace. Millie’s “unstoppable positive spirit, which always prevailed”, finds expression via Davis’  drum feature, this followed by a rousing final band section. An excellent start.

“Woland Blues” is named for “the mischievous yet somewhat good natured Devil” from the novel “The Master and Margarita” by the Russian author Mikhail Bulgakov (1891 – 1940).  Interestingly I seem to recall that Bulgakov’s work has also been a source of inspiration for saxophonist Trish Clowes. The piece opens with a short passage of unaccompanied, effects enhanced guitar before drums and bass establish a rolling, ever evolving groove that provides the impetus for the expansive soloing of both Marrows on guitar and Chris Williams on blues inflected alto sax. It’s a lengthy piece punctuated by the occasional passage of musical humour, suggestive of Woland’s mischievous character.

The title track takes its name from a quote by Marrows’ father, the artist Timothy Morrison – “My days of dancing on bentwood chairs were over…until now!” It’s a reference to Morrison’s days as an art student in Edinburgh in the 1970s and it’s Morrison’s art that appears on Marrows’ album cover.
“Intro to Dancing Upon Bentwood Chairs” is another solo guitar passage with Marrows again making use of a Blooper loop pedal to create a surreal atmosphere via a series of distortions and delays.
The addition of Huw V Williams on bass marks the transition into the main tune, with Chris Williams’ alto sax joining soon afterwards. Davis sits out for a while before adding brushed drums, then eventually switching to sticks as the music gathers momentum. Guitar and sax entwine around a lightly dancing melody that sometimes alludes to traditional Scottish folk music before Marrows takes the first solo, meandering with purpose towards the more rousing central section with Davis’ drums now coming to the fore. Tension builds and is finally released before the piece winds down more quietly, eventually returning to the woozy feel of the intro.

Marrows describes his composition “The Protagonist” as “the hero / heroine’s theme, who they are is up to you..” It’s a simple uplifting tune, ushered in by the composer on guitar, underpinned by an odd meter marching rhythm that forms the basis for the interplay between sax and guitar and with the use of the guitar effects again generating a surreal effect and throwing the music out of kilter.

The two part composition “Anthem For W.O.” was written for the occasion of the centenary of the death in the trenches of the First World War poet Wilfred Owen, with the title referencing Owen’s own work “Anthem for Doomed Youth”.
Presented as a separate track “Part 1” is a short introduction featuring the lonely wail of Chris Williams’ plaintive alto sax above an unsettling backdrop of guitar effects, bowed bass, cymbal shimmers and mallet rumbles. Brief but effective the emotions behind the music are obvious and I assume it to be an aural depiction of the terror of the trenches and of Owen’s violent and unnecessary death.
The lengthier “Part 2” is quieter, an atmospheric lament evoking the aftermath of battle once silence has finally descended. The eerie shimmer of the leader’s guitar is subsequently joined by Chris Williams’ mournful, gently brooding sax melodies. The rhythmic accompaniment is sparse, sensitive and understated with Davis deploying brushes and mallets. The emotions that are musically conveyed in this second part are very different, but are no less obvious.

Bulgakov’s Devil figure makes a welcome reappearance on “Woland Returns”, a more fleeting visitation this time featuring the eerie sounds of backwards guitar and sax that may remind some listeners of The Beatles’ “Revolver” album. The piece was sampled from a live recording of “Wolof Blues” at The Brink venue in 2021, thus it’s the sound of a band cannibalising it’s own music. Pop (or maybe in a jazz context Bop) Will Eat Itself, indeed.

The mood lightens again with “Speedwell”, named for a plant that Marrows’ late mother sent him during the 2020 Covid lockdown and which is still flourishing in his little roof terrace garden. Musically it’s a playful and jaunty offering with lively funk flavoured rhythms allied to a hint of North Africa or the Middle East in Marrows’ own playing. Huw V Williams features as a soloist with an agile, well delineated bass feature. He’s followed by Marrows’, whose own slippery lines exhibit a high level of inventiveness.

“Capel Fawnog” is named for a cottage that Marrows stayed at in North Wales near the Dwyryd Estuary that offered panoramic views of Snowdon and of the estuary itself. It seems to have had the same kind of galvanising effect on him as that famous visit to nearby Bron-yr-Aur had on Led Zeppelin back in 1970.
Again presented as a separate track “Intro to Capel Fawnog” is a short but effective scene setter featuring a double bass solo from Williams above a swirling atmospheric backdrop generated by Marrows’ guitar and Blooper loop pedal.
The main track eventually emerges out of this with solid, rock influenced rhythms underpinning Chris Williams’ direct and powerful alto sax melodies and subsequently Marrows’ stratospheric blues inflected guitar, which seems to soar over Snowdon itself, before coming gently back to earth. Then it’s Williams’ turn to take flight as his incisive and impassioned alto also heads for the skies.

The album concludes with “Great Ball at Satan’s”, the last of the Bulgakov inspired pieces, with Marrows commenting; “Step into a stately party for the inmates of the underworld, hosted by the Devil himself”. Introduced by electronically enhanced guitar and sax melodies it gradually gathers a woozy momentum, a skewed dance with alto sax the main melodic presence but with the Blooper pedal and other electronic effects a suitably Devilish presence throughout, pulling the music in and out of focus.

Marrows summarises this album thus;
“A long-awaited celebration of a band I’m really excited about and a record I’m still deeply proud of”.

I can only heartily concur with his assessment. This recording really sounds like the work of a band with a true ‘band’ mentality, a strong collective of outstanding individuals who cohere to create an even more outstanding whole.

Marrows himself impresses as a guitarist and even more so as a writer. His compositions are intelligent and imaginative and embrace a wide variety of influences, musical and otherwise. His deployment of the various electronic devices at his disposal is masterful, with the result being music that is skilfully orchestrated and rich in terms of colour and texture. Engineers Callum Albrow and Alex Bonney also deserve credit for making the finished album sound so good.

But ultimately the triumph is that of Marrows himself and the album represents a worthy follow up to the excellent “Penelope”.

“Dancing On Bentwood Chairs” is available via Billy Marrows’ Bandcamp page here;
https://billymarrows.bandcamp.com/music

The Billy Marrows Band will also be playing a short series of live dates as listed below;

Album Release Tour:
19 February 2026 - Album Launch, Vortex Jazz Club, London
25 March 2026 - Matt & Phreds, Manchester
26 March 2026 - City Screen Basement Bar, York
4 June 2026 - Brouhaha, London
6 June 2026 - The Bear Club, Luton

Ticket links here;
https://www.billymarrows.com/upcoming-gigs

 

 

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