Jazz breaking news: Matt Roberts Big Band go interstellar in Soho
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
It seems that rumours about the demise of the big band are greatly exaggerated.
Admittedly there are not many – if any – in the UK these days that can keep 17 musicians in full-time employment, but there is a growing number of big bands that come together for specific projects, playing interesting material and populated by the cream of today’s younger generation of conservatoire-trained musicians. Not content to play the standard big band jazz repertoire of the past 50 years, these ensembles provide excellent opportunities for their leaders or members to exercise their compositional talents, beta test new pieces and generally hone their writing skills. The Spice of Life in London’s Soho regularly plays host to such ensembles and featured the Matt Roberts Big Band on the first Sunday evening of the London Jazz Festival.
Many pieces from Matt Roberts’ pen have their inspiration in astronomy, mathematics or natural history. The band’s opener, the Mandelbrot Set (“a mathematical set of points whose boundary is a distinctive and easily recognisable two-dimensional fractal shape” according to Wikipedia) explored a variety of orchestral textures and colours ranging from the reflective to the dramatic, punctuated with fine solos from trombonist Tom White and tenor saxophonist Ben Mallinder. The remainder of their first set was devoted to arrangements by Roberts of four compositions of the great Wayne Shorter (currently celebrating his 80th birthday with a world tour), with special guest Julian Siegel as guest soloist on tenor and soprano saxophones. As Roberts pointed out, Julian had probably taught most if the sax players in his band at one time or other and he earned their applause for his passionate solo on ‘Lady Day’, a lesser known Shorter ballad for his Soothsayer album and his blistering take on an up-tempo ‘E.S.P.’
The second set was devoted to Matt Roberts’ compositions. ‘Australopithecus’, a light-hearted, dramatic depiction of the dawn of mankind in a dangerous landscape, featured an entertaining alto sax solo by Mike Scott which conveyed a spectrum of responses from fear and finally aggression when threatened by the drums of Mike Clowes. Julian Siegel returned to craft a beautiful soprano saxophone solo on the elegant and wistful ‘Hymn for Him’, a ballad in ¾ time dedicated to the tragic computer science pioneer Alan Turing. The concert closed with another Roberts classic, ‘New Horizons’, inspired by photograph from the far side of Saturn with Earth just visible in the distance. It started quietly with a gentle hypnotic figure played over-and-over on harmonics by guitarist Billy Adamson. The band gradually entered, building up the tension until Adamson opened up a guitar solo that built from long sustained notes to a superb climax, before the band returns as Saturn recedes and we are left with Adamson’s repeating harmonics fading in the distance. A great band, stuffed full of outstanding players and led by a composer who brings fresh new ideas to the jazz orchestra.
– Charles Alexander
– photo courtesy Benjamin Amure