REVIEW: ‘Life is the Dancer’ – Rob Luft

THE CONCEPT that ‘you don’t live your life but life lives you’ (quoted from Eckhart Tolle’s book The Power of Now) is behind Rob Luft’s sophomore album as leader, and aptly describes a characteristically joyful and optimistic approach heralded in 2017’s debut, Riser.

At this relatively early stage of his career, Luft is already forging a style all of his own which certainly amounts to more than his simple ‘guitar’ credit – a many-hued sound world and technique with a distinct, bubbling, aqueous attraction. His prowess as leader, composer and prolific sideman has placed him on the current roster of BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists, and a key role in Big Bad Wolf (a real crowd-puller at Manchester Jazz Festival) produced their feel-good release, Pond Life. More recently, he is prominent in the line-up of trumpeter Byron Wallen’s Portrait recording and has shown a natural affinity for improvising over the jazz and gamelan-inspired auras of multi-instrumentalist Felix Jay’s 3CD album Trio.

For Life is the Dancer – a programme of mostly self-penned material – Luft’s quintet again comprises tenorist Joe Wright, organist/pianist Joe Webb, bassist Tom McCredie and drummer Corrie Dick, with Byron Wallen and vocalist Luna Cohen guesting. Heard recently in conversation with Jess Gillam at BBC Radio 3, the guitarist’s warm personality and eclectic musical interests clearly shine through both his playing and interactions with others. Such vibrant, dance-imbued, sun-soaked strains are a welcome tonic in our uncertain times; and he’s unquestionably a groover, as Anders Christensen’s Berlin immediately signals through its pulsating, increasingly rock-driven progression.

It’s easy to fall under the spell of Luft’s writing and his band’s interpretations, the vocal-enhanced title track evoking the balmy, summertime haze of Sergio Mendes and Pat Metheny/Lyle Mays. The album thrives on the rapid, electronic-suggested (though entirely acoustic) rhythms of Corrie Dick and Tom McCredie’s fluent bass – ‘fast city’ fervour in One Day in Romentino is a prime example as Joe Wright’s tenor screeches above Luft’s pointillistic decoration. Co-written with Enzo Zirilli, Synesthesia pulls off audaciously tricky ‘push-pull’ time signatures, enough to raise a smile each time, amidst its rapturous energy; and the countryfied soul-blues of Sad Stars, accentuated by Joe Webb’s Hammond, is beautifully blithesome. Rob Luft’s message that “the past is in your head and the present is in your hands” is captured in the closing, gentle ebb of Expect the Unexpected, elevated by wordless chorus, muted trumpet and the never-failing bliss of those mellifluous guitar improvisations. 

Dance, smile and enjoy, you will.

Life is the Dancer is released on 17 April 2020 and available as CD, vinyl or digital download at Bandcamp.

 

Rob Luft guitar
Joe Wright tenor saxophone
Joe Webb Hammond organ, piano
Tom McCredie bass
Corrie Dick drums
with
Byron Wallen trumpet
Luna Cohen vocals

robluft.co.uk

Edition Records – EDN1152 (2020)

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RECENT LISTENING: April 2020 (2)

Steal the Light – Let Spin
Moss Freed, Ruth Goller, Finlay Panter, Chris Williams
Release date: 17 April 2020 (Efpi Records)
letspin.bandcamp.com

Life is the Dancer – Rob Luft
Rob Luft, Joe Wright, Joe Webb, Tom McCredie, Corrie Dick with Byron Wallen, Luna Cohen
Release date: 17 April 2020 (Edition Records)
robluft.bandcamp.com

Rickety Racket – Martin Pyne Quartet
Philippe Guyard, Russell Jarrett, Marianne Windham, Martin Pyne
Release date: 3 April 2020 (Tall Guy Records)
martinpyne.bandcamp.com

Two Chevrons Apart – Yuri Goloubev
Tim Garland, John Turville, Yuri Goloubev, Asaf Sirkis
Release date: 17 April 2020 (Basho Records)
bashorecords.com

Neutral Tones – Beresford Harries
Charlie Beresford, Tim Harries
Release date: 15 April 2020 (The 52nd)
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Trio (3CD) – Felix Jay
Felix Jay, Rob Luft, Byron Wallen, Nicola Alesini, Susan Alcorn, BJ Cole, Jan Steele
Recorded 1999–2019 (Hermetic Recordings)
burningshed.com (TBC) and ebay.co.uk

REVIEW: ‘Riser’ – Rob Luft

RobLuft_Riser

GUITARIST Rob Luft packs a lot into his debut, Riser – a quintet release of original music oozing vivacious, sun-kissed creativity. 

Based in London and still in his early twenties, Luft was awarded the 2016 Kenny Wheeler Music Prize whilst, in the same year, also achieving second place in the Montreux Jazz Guitar Competition; and his Big Bad Wolf project’s recent first issue, Pond Life, announced an intelligent approach to composition and performance (despite this album’s title modestly referring to the claim that he’s happier on a stage riser than filling out staves and ledger lines).

A contemporary feel across these fifty minutes reflects the cross-genre interests of a young personnel completed by saxophonist Joe Wright, organist/pianist Joe Webb, bassist Tom McCredie and drummer Corrie Dick. Luft’s guitar distinction is his meticulous technique as colorist, imbuing his music with either a bright, township radiance or becalmed beauty; imaginable hero influences might include Kurt Rosenwinkel, Steve Howe or Steve Hackett as he scampers across the frets in Night Songs, its organ-tremulant vibrancy intimating Weather Report with a Caribbean hook. Beware, full of perky, almost Celtic unison riffs, highlights Luft’s quite astonishing soloing rapidity; and title track Riser is dappled with a rocking-chair guitar quaintness associated with ’70s prog before reaching full-Leslie pop-rocking assuredness.

It’s palpable how many concepts whizz around this quintet, so there’s scant evidence of unnecessarily drawing-out ideas. Different Colours of Silence‘s affecting and serene guitar-and-sax aurora comes to dance energetically to Corrie Dick’s skittering percussion, and the afterglow segue into Dust Settles can’t help eventually whipping up a proud, memorable anthem; yet the constant, meditative, swirling washes of both Blue, White and Dreaming and Slow Potion imply the painterly imagery of soundtrack. There’s fun in the air as bass-grooving Shorty and St. Brian I scream their instrumental chants through honking tenor, wailing guitar, heavily-beaten rhythms and sustained organ; and the Spanish guitar delicacy of extended closer We Are All Slowly Leaving (with immaculate intonation from Luft) accelerates into a dizzying house-beat haze of fluid sax improvisation and searing, clashing guitar clusters.

If these myriad expressions sound at risk of being intangible or incohesive… well, it’s thanks to Rob Luft’s artistic overview that it all actually flows with great continuity, the band’s searching spirit driving the album through swathes of textural interest, warmth and esprit.

Riser? Luft is certainly on that upward trajectory.

Released on 28 July 2017 and available as CD or digital download from Edition Records at Bandcamp.

 

Rob Luft guitar
Joe Wright tenor saxophone
Joe Webb Hammond organ, piano, harmonium
Tom McCredie bass
Corrie Dick drums

robluft.co.uk

Edition Records – EDN1095 (2017)

‘Punch’ – Elliot Galvin Trio

Punch

SO WHAT was your early-childhood response to traditional seaside Punch & Judy entertainment – raucous laughter or quaking terror?!

Elliot Galvin’s wonderfully divergent trio release of 2014 – Dreamland, with bassist Tom McCredie and drummer Simon Roth – identified the creative ingenuity of this pianist, multi-instrumentalist and composer, reinventing the notion of that most classic of jazz formats (toy piano and all) in a spirit reminiscent of the great Django Bates or Frank Zappa. No-less-mischievous follow-up album Punch (recorded at the Funkhaus, Berlin) again combines indubitable, slick musicality with an entertaining, edgy unpredictability; the startling title track Punch and Judy, in particular, reflecting those questionable, garish, Victorian puppet show characters delivering wry humour, domestic violence and capital punishment.

Hurdy-Gurdy‘s writhing, looping piano increasingly gathers pace, not unlike the rotary mechanics of the ‘ancient synth’ to which its title refers, until McCredie’s and Roth’s sparky rhythms eventually encourage Galvin into a more level-headed, if entrancingly angular, accordion passage; and evocative, kalimba-toned Tipu’s Tiger creeps both cautiously and beautifully, adorned by waltzing double bass phrases and delicate glockenspiel (Galvin’s compositional and spacial awareness always spot on). Recognisably broken, distorted Stylophone and dual/detuned melodicas bring more than a touch of self-satisfied Mr Punch anarchy to Blop (the video reveals all), whilst Lions – with pizzicato prepared piano (ie duct tape!) – is arguably the most outrageously slapstick episode of these ten tracks, yet so compelling.

Beethoven, Bach and e.s.t. affectingly rub shoulders in the brooding darkness of 1666 (London’s year of war, plague and the Great Fire) as Galvin’s funereal, chordal piano agonisingly treads to slowly-thrummed bass momentum and jangling percussion; and audaciously deconstructed Mack the Knife lurches almost unrecognisably, though magnificently… until a piano-and-glockenspiel musical box finally states its melody with reassuring clarity. Jaunty Polari recalls the heyday of mid-’60s pop, its straight-ahead catchiness suggesting Alan Price or Georgie Fame, with the trio at least as ebullient; and simply-whistled closer Cosy can’t help but erupt with Lady Madonna-styled piano bass riff, jarring chords and rhythmic fizz.

Even if you have a tendency towards pupophobia… please, don’t have nightmares. It’s all good, clean fun – and another triumph of contemporary jazz invention. That’s the way to do it!

Released on 26 July 2016, on the Edition Records label, Punch is available as CD or digital download at Bandcamp.

 

Elliot Galvin piano, kalimba, melodicas, accordion, cassette player, Stylophone
Tom McCredie double bass
Simon Roth drums, percussion, glockenspiel

elliotgalvin.com

Edition Records – EDN1076 (2016)

‘Dreamland’ – Elliot Galvin Trio

Dreamland

THE JANGLING TOY PIANO offers a clue. From its impudent, clumsy, pealing intro to this Elliot Galvin Trio debut release, gradually disintegrating into an outrageous, messy sprawl before first track, Ism, finds its rhythmic feet, it becomes clear that this is no ordinary piano trio. In fact, the players – Elliot Galvin (piano), Tom McCredie (bass) and Simon Roth (drums) – appear to be redefining the genre.

Read the full review at LondonJazz News…


Elliot Galvin
piano, toy piano
Tom McCredie double bass
Simon Roth drum kit

Chaos Collective – CC003 (2014)

elliotgalvin.com
chaos-collective.com