The Weave

“Snishoo”

(Self Released)

Martin Smith – trumpet, flugelhorn, Anthony Peers – trumpet, flugelhorn, Anthony Ormesher – guitar, Hugo Harrison – double bass, Rob Stringer – piano, Tilo Pirnbaum – drums,  Ismael Aasgaard – trombone, Chris Preston – percussion, Vidar Norheim – vibraphone
with Michael Head – acoustic guitar & spoken word (track 6) Luciana Mercer, Nicholas Branton – vocals (track 9)

The Weave, led by trumpeter and composer Martin Smith is a long running Liverpudlian ensemble who released their eponymous debut album in 2013. The recording created a bit of a ‘buzz’ on the wider national jazz scene and was followed in 2015 by “Knowledge Porridge”, which consolidated the band’s success. Both albums are reviewed elsewhere on The Jazzmann, as are two highly enjoyable live performances that I witnessed in Shrewsbury in 2016 and Oswestry in 2018.

Unfortunately the Oswestry show was the last gig that the band played before undergoing a seven year hiatus, a lay off doubtless exacerbated by the ravages of the Covid pandemic. But it’s good to report that in 2025 The Weave are back gigging again and have also released a new album, “Snishoo”, which picks up from where the previous two recordings left off.

The Weave’s music has its roots in New Orleans, bebop, mainstream and hard bop but has a very contemporary sensibility that is reflected both in the humour of the group’s song titles and their awareness of the musical history of their native city. There’s an irreverence and good humour about their approach that is genuinely refreshing and their music embraces a variety of styles despite the obvious jazz template.

Martin Smith remains the group’s main writer and he has a hand in eight of the nine pieces on this latest release. Smith’s list of influences is wide and includes such diverse trumpet stylists as Brits Digby Fairweather and Ian Carr and Americans Bobby Shew, Marvin Stamm, Louis Armstrong, Clark Terry, Booker Little, Freddie Hubbard and the inevitable Miles Davis, but it’s Fairweather that he credits as his initial inspiration. Smith is also an experienced rock and pop session musician and has had a long association with the Liverpool band The Wizards of Twiddly who once served as the backing group for the late Kevin Ayers and worked with the late Jimmy Carl Black, one time drummer with Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention.  Besides the obvious jazz influences The Weave’s music also draws on Liverpool’s pop heritage, with the album title “Knowledge Porridge” being sourced from a line in a La’s song. The Weave also honour the long running Liverpudlian tradition of performance poetry, drawing on the legacy of the Liverpool Scene, Roger McGough and others. The Weave’s recordings have always featured at least one track incorporating the spoken word and “Snishoo” is no exception.

As a writer Smith has a way with both a good tune and a good tune title. His highly accessible melodies are frequently ear-worms, a fragment of which invariably remains in the listener’s consciousness no matter how far The Weave’s supremely fluent soloists stretch out. In this sense his pieces owe something to the classic Blue Note bebop / hard bop tradition but they also contain more contemporary influences, often from the worlds of pop, rock and psychedelia but all within a recognisable jazz format. But there’s no sense that The Weave’s pieces are just a string of solos, Smith is far too skilled and individual writer for that. There’s also a sense of humour in the music that is quintessentially Liverpudlian.

The current edition of The Weave is a septet featuring the twin trumpet front line of Smith and Tony Peers plus long serving members Anthony Ormesher (guitar),  Rob Stringer (piano),  Hugo Harrison (double bass) and Tilo Pirnbaum (drums), plus latest recruit Ismael Aasgaard on trombone. The core group is augmented by percussionist Chris Preston and vibraphonist Vidar Norheim while Michael Head adds acoustic guitar and spoken word to the track “Maggie Times”.

Opening track “A Study in Fog” commences with the sampled voice of a BBC announcer declaring, “that’s what it’s like here, Liverpudlians watching other Liverpudlians play Liverpudlian music”. I’d guess it was probably recorded around the time of The Beatles and Merseybeat. Out of this emerges a New Orleans style shuffle groove, the vehicle for the bright, vibrant horn interplay between the trumpeters,  Smith and Peers, and trombonist Aasgaard, with pianist Stringer also playing a significant role in the arrangement. It’s Aasgaard who takes the first solo, followed by one of the trumpeters, the soloing order isn’t listed on the sleeve, and I’m not going to speculate as to just who it is. Easier to identify is guitarist Ormesher, who is up next, followed by the other trumpeter, and finally pianist Stringer. A rousing collective outro helps to get the album off to a thoroughly invigorating start.

Although less frenetic “Francis The Peaceful” also exhibits something of a New Orleans influence and again features the outstanding young trombonist Aasgaard. Pianist Stringer is also featured more fully with a thoughtful but expansive solo. Next we hear from one of the trumpeters, followed on guitar by the consistently excellent Ormesher.

The lively and quirky “Boxing Day With Frank & Barbara” suggests more contemporary influences, including rock and pop, and is quintessential Weave. Fast moving clipped rhythms elicit vivacious solos for piano, trumpet and guitar.

“Lean In” is jointly credited to Smith and the Liverpool based jazz guitarist Alex MacDowall. It sees the addition of vibraphonist Norheim on a multi-faceted composition that embraces a variety of jazz styles from New Orleans marching rhythms to something much more contemporary. The ensemble playing is exceptional on this piece, with Norheim, who also appeared on “Knowledge Porridge”, a featured soloist alongside Stringer and Ormesher.

“Nought But Ice & Fluff” is a gentle and quirky jazz waltz that also features Norheim as a member of the ensemble. The group’s softer approach finds expression in the soloing of flugel horn rather than trumpet and drummer Pirnbaum’s deployment of brushes. Pianist Stringer and bassist Harrison add lyrical and melodic solos on their respective instruments.

Snishoo’s spoken word track is “Maggie Times”, with music composed by Smith allied to a collage of words from “Confessions of an English Opium Eater” by Thomas De Quincey together with original text by the Liverpudlian poet, songwriter and musician Michael Head, leader of his own group The Red Elastic Band and once of the post punk outfit The Pale Fountains. Introduced by Head’s vigorously strummed acoustic guitar it’s a catchy and engaging composition with the musical performance underpinning Head’s spoken word vocals, delivered in an authentic Scouse accent as he re-locates De Quincey’s tale of dissolution from London to Liverpool.

I remember bassist Hugo Harrison’s composition “Mary Waited” being played at Oswestry in 2018, alongside album opener “A Study In Fog”. Harrison is also a talented writer and his tune is a suitably quirky addition to The Weave canon. Introduced by Pirnbaum at the drums its loping, stop-start grooves provide the basis for engaging solos from Norheim on vibes and Stringer at the piano. The rest of the band temporarily drop out for a trumpet duet that steers us back towards New Orleans.

The combination of piano and vibes introduces “Potholes & Puddles”, a Smith composition that builds from the opening arpeggios to embrace a typically quirky ensemble sound. Ormesher emerges to deliver a fluent and tasteful guitar solo, aided by Harrison’s melodic bass and Pirnbaum’s economical drumming. Next we hear from one of the trumpeters and then from Norheim at the vibes.

The album concludes with the title track, a bright and jovial offering with the vocal exhortations of guests Luciana Mercer and Nicholas Branton celebrating such human qualities as peacefulness, happiness, tolerance, empathy, forgiveness, selflessness and many more. A bit ‘hippy-dippy’ maybe,  and in other hands it might all sound pretentious and po-faced, but this is The Weave so it all feels totally appropriate and ‘just right’. Following this vocal section a passage of unaccompanied piano from Stringer leads into an exuberant ‘second line’ sequence as The Weave close out the album in celebratory fashion.

After seven long years away “Snishoo” represents a triumphant return for The Weave. The album is a continuation of the two earlier recordings and exhibits all the same virtues – intelligent and individual writing, excellent playing from all concerned and that all important sense of humour and irreverence, allied to a love of their home city,  that makes the group’s sound so distinctive. It’s good to have them back.

That said ‘The Weave Renaissance’, as Smith has described it, has all been a bit low key. Let’s hope that the band can start building a following again and begin gigging a bit more widely. Right now the world needs The Weave’s uplifting music and their distinctive blend of Liverpudlian wit and wisdom.

“Snishoo” is available via The Weave’s website https://www.theweavemusic.com/

 

 

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