Bryan Corbett’s Instrumental Groove Unit, Corn Exchange Club, The Corn Exchange, Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire, 11/09/2025.

Bryan Corbett – trumpet, flugelhorn, Paul Deats – Fender Rhodes, synthesiser, Wayne Matthews – fretted and fretless six string electric basses, Luke Harris – drums

Birmingham based trumpeter and composer Bryan Corbett attracted a pleasingly large audience to The Corn Exchange for his second visit to the venue.

The first saw him bring his regular ‘straight-ahead’ jazz quartet featuring pianist Al Gurr, bassist Tom Hill and drummer Mitch Perrins to the Club in May 2023 to play a set that combined a well chosen selection of jazz and bebop standards combined with a smattering of Corbett originals. That performance is reviewed here;
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/bryan-corbett-quartet-the-corn-exchange-kings-head-hotel-ross-on-wye-herefordshire-11-05-2023

Tonight’s event was very different as Corbett brought his latest project, the Instrumental Groove Unit (or IGU), to Ross for the first time. This is a predominately an electric band with a stable line up featuring Paul Deats on electric keyboards and Wayne Matthews on six string electric basses. The line up is completed by drummer Luke Harris, Corbett’s band mate in the Brand New Heavies touring ensemble.

The IGU is also different to Corbett’s ‘acoustic’ quartet in that the focus is almost exclusively on his own writing, but with a strong emphasis placed both on groove and improvisation. In a sense it represents a return to his experiments with electronics on his series of ‘nu jazz’ albums released in the early 2000s, namely “Corbenova” (2003), “Off The Cuff” (2005) and “Pressure Valve” (2006).

Personally I’ have been following Corbett’s career for a long time. He was born in Bromyard in my native county of Herefordshire and in his early days as a musician in the late 1990s and early 2000s he used to play regularly at the tiny Blue Note Café Bar in my home town of Leominster, often in a duo with pianist Levi French.

After moving to Birmingham Corbett quickly established himself on the wider Midlands jazz scene and has also released several albums under his own name. In addition he has also found work as a respected session and touring musician. He has  performed as part of the touring bands of numerous rock and pop acts, among them Brand New Heavies,  US3, McFly and Tony Christie.  He also runs The Remote Horns, a kind of ‘virtual horn section for hire’.

Although never a particularly prolific composer Corbett has recorded fairly frequently, beginning in 1999 with “Funk in the Deep Freeze”. In 2000 “Simply Blue”, the title track a Corbett original honouring the Leominster Blue Note, was the first of a number of live albums in either a quartet or quintet format,  others in the series including the double sets “Message of Iridescence” (2015) and the 1959 themed “The Hi-Fly Quintet” (2019),

The Hi-Fly Quintet recording honoured some of the great albums released in 1959, a real landmark year for jazz that gave us Miles Davis’ “Kind Of Blue”, Dave Brubeck’s “Time Out”, Charles Mingus’ “Ah Um” Ornette Coleman’s “The Shape of Jazz to Come”  and Horace Silver’s “Blowin’ The Blues Away” among others. The success of this project has led to Corbett presenting other similar themed ‘tributes’ such as Ready For Freddie, his homage to his all time trumpet hero Freddie Hubbard (1938-2008). This also yielded an album, subtitled “The Hub”, a recording that still represents Corbett’s latest album release.

Corbett has also toured with The Blue Note Session Band, which offers an evening of music associated with the label written by composers such as Hubbard, Horace Silver, Hank Mobley, Grant Green, Wayne Shorter and others. Typically the group goes out as a quintet or sextet but promoters also have the option to add a vocal, electronic or even rap / hip hop option.

Tonight represented my second sighting of the Instrumental Groove Unit. The same line up had played a very enjoyable show at a Music Spoken Here event at The Marr’s Bar in Worcester in December 2024, a performance that is reviewed here;
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/bryan-corbetts-instrumental-groove-unit-music-spoken-here-the-marrs-bar-worcester-12-12-2024

The Worcester event took place just before Christmas 2024 and audience numbers were rather disappointing. There was a much more substantial crowd tonight and one which really got behind the band. Tonight’s set list was very similar but the quartet seemed to stretch the numbers out even further over the course of two lengthy sets. This was an immersive set that combined deep grooves with spacey, ambient textures and plenty of the promised improvisation.

As at Worcester the quartet commenced with a composition simply known as “IGU Intro”, a surprisingly substantial piece of work commencing in atmospheric fashion with the shimmer of Deats’ vintage Fender Rhodes Mark V Stage 73, an instrument manufactured in the 1980s. Deats’ keyboard set up also includes a  Little Phatty analogue synth, a model that the Moog company ceased the production of in 2013. He also deploys an array of effects units and other electronic devices, all this equipment for a very distinctive sound that helps to define the group.
Gradually Matthews and Harris began to establish a funk inspired groove that imparted the music with more of an urban feel. This provided the platform for Corbett’s fluent soloing on his unusual square belled trumpet, custom made for him by Taylor Trumpets, a Norwich based company with whom he has been associated throughout his career. We also heard further solos from Deats on Fender Rhodes and Matthews on one of his two six string electric basses, the sound of his instrument heavily treated via a range of effects pedals. Corbett returned on trumpet as the piece resolved itself, with drummer Harris also featuring strongly in the closing stages.

“Psycho Spirit” was ushered in by an unaccompanied passage of liquidly lyrical electric bass, courtesy of Matthews. Eventually the bassist began to establish a groove, with Rhodes and drums subsequently added. This piece featured Corbett on a Taylor made flugelhorn, again featuring a distinctive square bell. His flugel solo featured the softer, more rounded tone that is characteristic of the instrument, but nevertheless there was still an element of urgency that began to emerge as a typically fluent solo progressed. Deats’ keyboard solo incorporated a mix of Rhodes and synth sounds as the solid drumming of the excellent Harris provided the necessary rhythmic platform for the featured soloists.

Introducing the composition “Rubicon” Corbett announced that the band members would play ‘the head’ but would then have the freedom to “go anywhere”.  Ushered in by the trio of keys, bass and drums this saw Corbett continuing on flugel as he shared the solos with Deats, the pair creating an immersive soundscape underpinned by an increasingly funky groove.

The first set concluded with “IGU” itself, the quartet’s ‘signature tune’, if you will. Introduced by Harris at the drums, joined first by bass and then by keyboards, this was a more overtly funky offering that saw Corbett reverting to trumpet and again sharing the solos with Deats’ keyboards. Corbett then returned for a second bite of the cherry, supported by an infectious and hard driving funk groove. Having built to a peak the gently atmospheric outro came as something of a surprise.

Set two commenced with “Different Species”, introduced by the combination of electric bass and drums, with the sound of Rhodes subsequently added. A rolling funk groove was subsequently established, this alternating with gentler,  more reflective episodes. The groove provided the impetus for a powerful Corbett trumpet solo that saw the leader manipulating the sound of his instrument via a range of effects pedals. Deats’ keyboard solo featured a mix of Rhodes and synth sounds, with Harris’ implacable drum groove providing the necessary rhythmic impetus.

Harris and Matthews also kicked off “Pushin’ Ya Buttons”, with the bassist establishing a muscular groove that provided the platform for solos from Corbett on flugel and Deats on keyboards. Matthews was also featured with an expansive and highly melodic electric bass solo.

Corbett’s “Solo Trumpet Interlude” again saw him deploying his range of effects to create an echoed, layered sound.

This evolved into the only cover of the night, an arrangement of the  Freddie Hubbard tune “Skagly”, the title track of a Hubbard album from 1980. This was an exuberant, hard grooving offering featuring solos from Corbett on trumpet and Deats on keyboards, plus a neatly constructed and carefully controlled drum feature from the excellent Harris. Corbett then returned for a second trumpet solo, blowing stridently above a stuttering funk groove. Hubbard is Corbett’s all time trumpet hero, so it was perhaps appropriate for one of his tunes to be included here.

The evening concluded with “Acolina”, a tune named after the Aloe Vera plant. Once again this was opened by the sounds of drums and bass, with Harris and Matthews again establishing a rolling funk groove that provided the platform for solos from Corbett on flugel and Deats on keyboards as the band signed off in relatively introspective fashion.

I was very impressed with this second sighting of IGU. Although much of the material was already familiar to me the band seemed to do even more with it than previously, stretching out but doing so with purpose and achieving just the right balance between tightness and looseness, the solidity of the grooves providing the necessary improvisational freedom for the soloists.

The music also seemed to be richer in terms of colour and texture with Corbett, Deats and Matthews all making highly effective use of an array of electronic devices. Although rooted in rhythm the music made effective use of contrasting moods, colours and textures with shifting dynamics a more or less constant feature. This was immersive music that was simultaneously retro (vintage analogue instruments)  and futuristic. Electric era Miles Davis and Freddie Hubbard’s fusion period are obvious reference points but with the emphasis firmly on original composition the IGU have developed a sound that is very much their own.

I’ve heard some of these pieces (“Psycho Spirit”, “Pushing Ya Buttons”, “Different Species”) before in an acoustic jazz context but they had initially been written for IGU and sound even better in this context.

The next step must be for the IGU to commit this music to disc. This is music that deserves to be heard and which needs to be documented while it remains fresh and exciting.

My thanks to Bryan Corbett and Paul Deats for speaking with me after the show, Bryan for verifying the set list and Paul for telling me something about his keyboard set up. Paul also co-runs the Peggy’s Skylight jazz club in Nottingham, a venue that is very much on my ‘must visit’ list.

 

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