Sam Crockatt Quartet

“Flood Tide”

(Babel Records BDV1199)

“Flood Tide” is saxophonist and composer Sam Crockatt’s keenly awaited follow up to “Howeird”, his 2009 release on the Loop Records label which won that year’s Parliamentary Jazz Award for best album. “Howeird” featured the pianistic talents of Gwilym Simcock, a factor that helped to bring the album a good deal of attention. Simcock’s increasingly busy schedule ensured that he was never likely to be a fixture in the Crockatt quartet and his place on this recording has gone to Kit Downes, a similarly talented (and these days almost as busy) player and composer. Crockatt’s regular rhythm section of double bassist Oli Hayhurst and drummer Ben Reynolds remain in situ and this new quartet configuration ensures that “Flood Tide” is a worthy follow up to its illustriouspredecessor.

I’ve been lucky enough to see Crockatt perform live a couple of times. Earlier this year I saw this quartet début some of this material at the 2011 Cheltenham Jazz Festival. Even though Crockatt was suffering badly from the effects of a heavy cold it was immediately apparent that the new group had considerable potential and this is borne out throughout “Flood Tide”. Previously I’d seen him playing a standards set at The Hive in Shrewsbury with a local rhythm section of pianist Edgar Macias, bassist Tom Hill and drummer Miles Levin. This event is of more significance than might first be apparent. Crockatt is by far the most “straight ahead” member of the Loop Collective, eschewing the overt experimentation and use of electronics embraced by many of his colleagues. He plays in a strictly acoustic setting and isn’t ashamed to show a degree of deference to the jazz tradition. A recent move from London out to rural Somerset seems likely to enforce these musical character traits. Not that Crockatt should be considered a “young fogey”, “Flood Tide” is full of interesting and thoroughly contemporary jazz compositions, seven by tenor sax specialist Crockatt and one by pianist Kit Downes.

Indeed the album kicks off with Downes’ “Sun and Moon”, which as Crockatt’s liner notes inform us was written by the pianist in the car on the way to a gig with the sun on one side and the moon on the other. It’s an energetic, odd meter opener essentially divided, appropriately enough, into two parts. The piece opens in saxophone trio mode but Crockatt ensures that the piece retains an underlying lyricism, closer in spirit to his former teacher and mentor Julian Arguelles than to the more full on style of Sonny Rollins. Downes’ exuberant, tumbling Jarrett style piano solo constitutes the second half of the tune.  Taken as a whole it represents a strong start to the new album.

Crockatt’s own “Trilogy” focuses more readily on the quartet’s lyrical virtues. This “tune in three parts” is delicately paced and includes an opening feature for bassist Hayhurst wrapped up in a kind of folk melody cum march. Then follows a delightful central section featuring an exquisite duet between Crockatt and Downes before a freer closing segment. Reynolds’ subtly detailed drumming adds colour and nuance throughout.

“The Golden Goose” also includes another excellent solo from Hayhurst but the tune is in fact a dedication to Crockatt’s tenor and the composer contributes a fine solo in a composition that embraces the mainstream but is still packed full of contemporary ideas.

Solo saxophone introduces “King Apple” a trio item that evokes Rollins and bebop whilst still retaining Crockatt’s innate tunefulness and lyricism. Hayhurst’s muscular but supple bass playing and Reynolds’ colourful drums and percussion are highly effective and contribute hugely to the success of the piece. It’s not dissimilar to the music of the young London based saxophone trio Partikel.

“The Ridgeway” celebrates the house in North London that became the Loop Collective’s hangout and was Crockatt’s home for ten years. It’s a celebratory, groove oriented, Latin tinged piece and features an exuberant piano solo from Downes and some fiery r’n'b inflected tenor from the composer.

“The Prophet” is altogether more serious in tone with Crockatt’s notes informing us that the piece is “Based on the verse on death from Kahil Gilbran’s beautiful book The Prophet”. The music has an almost Zen like calm with a delicate, folkish saxophone melody embellished by Reynolds’ delicately detailed drum and percussion shadings. There’s a quiet intensity about this piece that is sometimes reminiscent of Jan Garbarek, one of Crockatt’s acknowledged influences.

“Theodore’s Spring Song” is centred around a series of engaging duo dialogues featuring Reynolds, firstly with Crockatt and subsequently with Downes and Hayhurst. There are freer moments that involve all four members of the quartet in spirited musical conversation plus a blues based theme that somehow holds it all together.

Crockatt describes “Flood Tide” itself as a “a watery sort of tune”. At a little under nine minutes it’s the lengthiest piece on the album and is a cinematic piece of writing that is intended to represent “a kind of magnetic ebb and flow”, a quality that Crockatt applies, with some justification, to the album as a whole. There’s an appropriately flowing solo from Downes, a real outpouring of ideas, followed by a serpentine saxophone voyage from Crockatt that probes deeply but never loses the underlying sense of melody. The piece concludes with a lovely saxophone and piano duet, this coda perhaps representative of the “calm after the storm”.

Recorded at the renowned Artesuono Studios in Udine, Italy, home to many ECM albums and recently an increasingly popular destination for UK jazz artists, “Flood Tide” boasts a superior sound that emphasises the lyrical virtues of the quartet. But there’s also a degree of muscle about Crockatt’s music that finds increasing expression in his writing and playing. Also Downes brings a spirit of freedom and openness to the group that was perhaps less apparent on the “Howeird” recording. “Flood Tide” shows Crockatt subtly shifting his approach and is a worthy follow up to his debut. Let’s hope his audience stays with him.

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