Laura Jurd and Friends
St John The Evangelist, Oxford
24 April 2025

Laura Jurd trumpet
Cori Smith viola
Tara Cunningham lead guitar
Ruth Goller bass guitar
Sebastian Rochford drums

Composer-trumpeter Laura Jurd rightly has become well known since she burst on the scene with the Laura Jurd Quartet. The quartet, re-named Dinosaur, were nominated for the Mercury Prize for their album “Together, As One”  in 2017, and Jurd also has been a BBC New Generation Artist )2015-2017).

Jurd has become known for incorporating folk and Middle Eastern idioms into her jazz compositions. As a composer she’s also collaborated with classical ensembles among which have been the London Sinfonietta, the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and the Ligeti Quartet.

She’s released four albums under her own name. The Jazz Mann reviewed her fourth ‘Stepping Back, Jumping In’ (2019) putting it in the context of her career up to then:
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/laura-jurd-stepping-back-jumping-in

Since that album was released her activities include contributing to a lockdown project ‘A Place of Crisps’ and Piano’s ‘Soundwalk for Isolation’, led by accordionist, composer, producer Martin Green whose name is instantly recognisable in the folk world as one third of the multiple award winning trio Lau.

Also, she released two brass driven albums, one under her own name, ‘The Big Friendly Album’(2022), and one with Paul Dunmall, ‘Fanfares and Freedom’(2024), both of which were well received.

In October 2024 Jurd was in Oxford playing as the main guest at Frank and Mark’s monthly jazz night in Iffley, Oxford, a night I enjoyed very much:
Frank Harrison / Mark Hodgson / Laura Jurd / Corrie Dick - Frank Harrison / Mark Hodgson / Laura Jurd / Corrie Dick, Frank and Mark’s, Iffley Village Church Hall, Oxford, 15/10/2024 | Review | The Jazz Mann

That night she was putting a fresh gloss on some familiar standards. Tonight was very different as except for one number, the set list consisted of her compositions for what will be the fifth album in her name which is due for release in October.

When Laura Jurd spoke to the audience after the third number she said that she was excited to be playing this music in public. I think it might only have been the third time that she’s had the opportunity to do so. Only one of the line-up she brought with her is on the recording, Ruth Goller on electric bass. Also on stage tonight were improviser -composer Tara Cunningham lead guitar instead of Martin Green , accordion who is on the recording.  From the folk world there was Cori Smith, viola, instead of Ultan O’Brien viola and violin, and Sebastian Rochford was on drums instead of Corrie Dick. Everyone had played the music at least once though, except for Rochford who was playing it for the first time.

The folk and middle eastern influences were almost immediately apparent. Jurd, having left it to the others to play the initial contemplative minor key phrase, came in with a short, distinctly Arabic sounding, trumpet phrase and then gave way to Cori Smith playing a kind of folk dirge that might have been derived from English plain song or a Norwegian Lutheran hymn . A rising crescendo led by Jurd, again channelling Middle Eastern influences quickly developed, and then her solo trumpet soared over a powerful wash that would not have been out of place in a rock band’s repertoire. The tune then became much gentler with Jurd’s trumpet delicately embellished by Cori Smith’s viola, and ended almost as a lullaby.

It was an engrossing start that showed both the flexibility and the tightness of the ensemble that Jurd had brought together. Also, it had me wondering how much of what was played was composed, and how much was improvised in the moment. Ruth Goller was using sheet music, perhaps not surprising given she plays complex and unusual bass lines, but she was the only one using a script.

Seb Rochford’s rippling drums began the second number that led into a staccato Middle Eastern influenced march with a strong grove that then became a sort of ritualistic dance. My notes say “Rite of Spring, but without the rhythmic anarchy”. In the midst of this there was some ethereal mysterious viola embroidered by Rochford brushing the drums and cymbals.

The third number was sinister, even scary. Jurd’s trumpet led the ensemble in a funeral march and then she made her trumpet sound as if it was screaming banshee, which is very bad omen. Even more disturbing was the steady throb of Goller’s bass which suggested something very nasty this way comes, what’s even and worse that there’s no escape.

When after this number that Jurd spoke to the audience for the first time, she told us that the title of what we’d just heard was ‘Preying Mantis’. The preceding number was called ‘Step up to the Alter’ and I could not help but think that this was a sacrificial alter to the preying mantis. With the opening number being titled ‘Offering’, perhaps what we’d been listening to was an ambitious three part allegory inspired by Stravinsky’s ‘Rite of Spring’.

After the ‘Preying Mantis’ it was a relief when the next number ‘Lighter and Brighter’ lived up to its title. After some combined guitar and viola noodling, the ensemble launched in to a joyous folk dance , a jig I think. Then they de-constructed it, taking us into crazy quasi free jazz territory before bringing back the opening tune but this time the particle physics accelerator version. It made an exhilarating end to the first half.

The second half began by picking up on the joyful ending of the first half, but now with an upbeat folk rock vibe over which Jurd played one of her lovely trumpet solos. She then gave space for an excellent guitar solo from Tara Cunningham before the jig propelled by Rochford’s rim shots was played out.

There followed the one number that wasn’t a Jurd original. This was ‘St. James Infirmary’ in which Goller’s glissandi on her bass guitar and Jurd’s mournful trumpet were the prelude to a tolling bell and a valedictory fanfare what was a profound version that brought out the pathos of the sad story associated with this famous tune.

After that again it was a relief that what followed was lighter, a tune that was animated by a gentle swaying Middle Eastern dance rhythm but which had a twist in that it came to a sudden unexpected end.

What proved to be the final number, ‘What Are You Running Toward?’ saw Rochford and Goller setting off at pace with Jurd’s trumpet then joining and keeping up the speed over what were now cross rhythms from the drums and bass guitar. The lead guitar and viola joined as swirling shapes and then staccato steps emerged before the tune subsided, perhaps having become exhausted by all that running towards we know not what.

Jurd the player continues to impress me with her control, flexibility and sensitivity all of which it seems to me are built on her ability to get her phrasing just right. As impressive tonight was Jurd the composer- story teller, and Jurd the open minded and generous group leader who gave space for Cori Smith on viola and Tara Cunningham to express themselves. Both of them were new to me and after tonight names I shall remember for the future.

For Rochford and Goller this gig was one more in an association that goes back to the path breaking group Acoustic Ladyland (2001-2010). It’s reductive to say they were a tight rhythm section, which they were, when they offered so much more in how their textures were intrinsic to the feel of each tune.

While the audience did not get it’s wish for an encore, what we’d heard had been intriguing and very enjoyable. For me the first half just shaded it over the second because of that visceral praying mantis.

It was a privilege to have had such an extensive preview of the new album, and everyone present has to thank the promoters Music at Oxford for pulling of this coup. It certainly whetted my appetite for the album to come even though it could have a different vibe from tonight as three of the personnel are are different, and particularly as there’s an accordion on the recording rather than a lead guitar. It will be fascinating to see if the Middle Eastern influence that was strong tonight is equally strong on the album. Whether it is or not, the album when it’s released seems likely to further enhance Laura Jurd’s place at the forefront of British contemporary jazz.

Thanks to Laura and Seb Rochford for chatting with me as they were packing up and to Music at Oxford for making me so welcome.

For details of the album release in October and the tour to follow in November, nearer autumn
please visit http://www.laurajurd.com

Tonight’s set list;

The Offering
Step Up to the Alter
Praying Mantis
Lighter and Brighter
(Second Half)
You Again
St James Infirmary
Bide Your Time
What Are You Running Toward?

COLIN MAY