Larry Bartley & Just Us!

“Beauty in the Hideous”

I’ve been an admirer of the playing of bassist, composer and occasional actor Larry Bartley for a number of years. As one of the UK’s most reliable bassists he’s worked with saxophonists Ingrid Laubrock, Chris Biscoe, Tony Kofi and Jean Toussaint, pianist Jonathan Gee and trumpeter Jay Phelps as well as accompanying vocalists such as Jo Caleb.

Bartley is also a skilled composer although it’s over a decade since his last outing as a leader, 2003’s self released “Along This Way” which featured a fluctuating ensemble of leading UK based jazz musicians, among them Laubrock and Kofi. The album featured some ambitious writing for a variety of instrumental configurations and in 2006 Bartley was commissioned to write a series of pieces for jazz octet, the compositions subsequently being premi?red at that year’s Cheltenham Jazz Festival. Unfortunately Bartley didn’t get to document the music on disc although the but its spirit lives on as part of “Beauty in the Hideous” this splendid new album from the quartet that Bartley has named Just Us!   

I recently saw Bartley perform at the The Hive Music and Media Centre in Shrewsbury as a member of saxophonist Jean Toussaint’s quartet JT4, a show reviewed elsewhere on this site.  Hilary Hannaford of Shrewsbury Jazz Network asked me if I’d heard Bartley’s new album while emphasising just how good it was. I spoke to Larry after the gig and he kindly promised to send me a review copy and I’m pleased to report that Hilary’s opinion is fully vindicated. “Beauty in the Hideous” may have been a long time in coming but on this evidence it’s been well worth the wait.

Just Us! teams Bartley with the twin saxophones of Tony Kofi (alto) and Ed Jones (tenor) with drummer Rod Youngs completing a supremely flexible and innately musical rhythm section. The chord-less line up evokes comparisons with the classic Ornette Coleman quartet but the subtle interplay between the horns also suggests the influence of more contemporary outfits such as Polar Bear. It’s a lengthy album, only just short of eighty minutes, but after such a long wait Bartley has plenty to say, and it’s all well worth listening to. The eleven track programme consists of ten Bartley originals plus one composition from the pen of Rod Youngs. The success of the album is helped by a pinpoint mix courtesy of engineers Joe Leach and Nick Watson which highlights all the details and nuances of the playing. Meanwhile it’s the multi talented Bartley who is responsible for the album’s distinctive artwork. 

The album kicks off in thrilling fashion with the fast moving, free-wheeling, Coleman-esque “Groundhog Day (S.O.S.)” with its switchback turns and variations of pace. There’s some fiery interplay between the horns plus solos from each and some terrific work from Bartley and Youngs, alternately propulsive and reactive as the piece draws to a surprisingly reflective close. 

As it’s title suggests “Dreamer” is altogether more impressionistic, sometimes sombre as it opens with the sound of the leader’s unaccompanied bass before embracing the sound of bass clarinet (played by Jones I’d assume, the album credits are less than illuminating with regard to instrumentation). In any event the blend of horns is again totally beguiling no matter how deeply they probe above the backdrop of Youngs’ rolling toms and dramatic cymbal work with Bartley the ever reliable anchor.

The mood is sustained on the atmospheric “Dust Angels” with its gently intertwining horns, brushed drums and unifying bass motif.

The centrepiece of the album is the sixteen and a half minute “Blackboy Hill”, a piece that originally formed part of Bartley’s 2006 Cheltenham Jazz Festival commission. Named after a notorious thoroughfare in Bristol it’s a three part suite that reflects Bartley’s Jamaican roots and serves as a kind of protest through musical allegory against the iniquities of the slave trade. Part 1 “Out of Africa” is a brief lament featuring grainy arco bass and long, melancholic horn lines. The second sequence “The Middle Passage” opens with powerfully plucked bass and represents the long sea voyage to the Americas and the Caribbean. It’s an image that also informed Zed U’s début album “Night Time On The Middle Passage” (2009). Bartley’s piece is intensely rhythmic, his bass grounding a series of horn exchanges that reflect the changing climatic conditions of a long sea voyage, periods of calm interrupted by sudden squalls etc.
Part 3, “Welcome To The New World” sees the return of dark, low register arco bass before Bartley puts down the bow and picks out a plucked motif that forms the basis for another piece of atmospheric melancholia that serves as a reminder that everything in the New World wasn’t exactly sweetness and light for the transplanted Africans. Typically grainy bass clarinet plus Youngs’ subtly inventive hand drumming add to the sombre atmosphere but gradually the piece gathers momentum, symbolic perhaps of the immigrants’ eventual liberation but still underscored with a tangible sadness with its roots in the blues. Taken as a whole “Blackboy Hill” is an impressive piece of work and its appearance on record is long overdue.

Bartley’s bass sets the agenda for “Mama Ghizzad” which also features Youngs’ colourful drums and percussion and evocative unison horn lines which later diverge into bouts of spirited interplay and lengthier individual solos with both Kofi and Jones making powerful statements.

The title track features Bartley’s writing at its best, an attractive, long lined, elegant theme framing the solos, including one from Bartley himself. “Just Us!”, effectively the quartet’s signature tune takes them back onto Ornette inspired territory, a freely constructed whirl of coruscating energy from which a structure eventually emerges. The exchanges between Jones and Kofi are typically brilliant, as they are throughout the album.

Youngs’ “Winds Of Change” is another piece with a political undercurrent, the title a quote from Martin Luther King. Both Youngs and Bartley have worked with saxophonist and composer Denys Baptiste who has continually used Dr. King as an inspiration for his work. Youngs’ piece begins with the sound of Bartley’s bass, this later joined by the composers’ drums, his ceaselessly evolving fluid rhythms providing the backdrop for the solos and interplay of Jones and Kofi, each bringing a vocalised, very human quality to their playing. There’s a spiritual dimension about this piece that is closer in spirit to John Coltrane than Ornette Coleman. 

“Period Peace” begins in chamber jazz mode, a delightful blend of saxophone and arco bass before taking a more Coleman-esque turn with Kofi and Bartley the featured soloists as Youngs provides delightfully nuanced drum commentary.

Things take a bluesier turn with “The Bluesknott”, an appropriate title that highlights Bartley’s skills as both accompanist and soloist. His fast walk and Young’s crisp, clipped drumming inspire the horns but the leader has plenty to say on his own account too. The same applies to Youngs with a series of engaging drum breaks.

The album closes with the brief “The Balcony Waltz” which finds the quartet embracing a gently brooding blues inflected lyricism as they end proceedings on an elegiac note.

“Beauty in the Hideous” is one of the most satisfying albums I’ve heard all year. The interplay between the horns of Kofi and Jones is exceptional and the same almost telepathic understanding can also be found in the work of the rhythm team of Bartley and Youngs. However it’s perhaps best not to think in terms of separate components or departments, Just Us!, the name itself an expression of unity, can almost be viewed as a single entity, such is the chemistry between the players. Of course it helps that they’ve been given such strong material to work with, Bartley’s thoughtful compositions providing a fertile breeding ground for the quartet’s improvisations. 

It’s a shame that this magnificent album isn’t widely available, the best way to get hold of it is at one of Larry’s gigs or perhaps by contacting him via Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/pages/larry-bartley_1

Just Us! played a series of gigs earlier in 2014 but unfortunately I contrived to miss their Birmingham show. The prospect of seeing this music played live remains a tantalising prospect.
Let’s hope that Larry is able to schedule some more live performances in the near future.     

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