Troyka - Into Orbit
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Troyka have something no other band around have: a certain sense of scale, a willingness to embrace that most maligned of genres – jazz-rock and prog – and, let’s face it, a rocket science improvisational ability into the bargain.
As the band prepare to tour their new album Moxxy, the album that threatens to paint it all over with fast circling McLaughlinlike guitar, thundering organ, and gravity defying beyond-the-barline rhythms, Selwyn Harris welcomes the return of an outfit that if it didn’t exist someone would have had to have invented it.
Troyka is in the house. All three of the young rising star contemporary Brit-jazz electric trio are with me at Kings Place, the multi-purpose arts building in London’s Kings Cross. In the midst of some lunchtime bustle, we’ve found one of the few quiet spots to talk at a table just outside the main concert hall, even if it means we’ve got to stand up. To my right there’s Josh Blackmore, the drummer. He’s the one that got Troyka off the ground, initially performing for a commission he received from his hometown Derby’s Jazz Festival week in 2007. To my left is Chris Montague, the guitarist, who does a tasteful job with loop/effects pedals. He originally got together with Blackmore with the idea of “a John Scofield-ish jam” before the pair formed Troyka for the Derby gig.
“It was meant to be a guitar trio with Calum Gourlay on bass, but he didn’t turn up to the first rehearsal. Kit just stuck his head round the door,” says Montague. Kit is Kit Downes and is standing opposite me, the high flying yet genuinely modest Norwich-born pianist who won the jazz nomination for the Mercury Music Prize in 2010 for his acoustic trio debut. For Troyka he’s plugged in, on both keys and hammond organ. Unlike most bands, it’s not so clear who the leader might be. Downes is the one who has the most to say in the interview so is the most obvious spokesman for the band. But he tells me Troyka is actually Chris Montague’s baby.
This is an extract from Jazzwise Issue #164 – to read the full article click here to subscribe and receive a FREE CD...