Jazz breaking news: Matt Slocum trio makes London debut
Thursday, November 3, 2011
While drummer Matt Slocum is a complete unknown to UK jazz audiences and the young US player was even visiting London for the very first time, performing at the Pizza Express Jazz Club on Tuesday evening, he was in very experienced and high flying company.
With the imprimatur of no less a figure than original Weather Report drummer Peter Erskine the 30-year-old Slocum along with pianist Sam Yahel (Joshua Redman Elastic band) and double bassist Massimo Biolcati (Lionel Loueke Trio) the New Jersey-based drummer was playing music from new release After The Storm with highlights including the ballad ‘When Love is New’ written for his girlfriend he told us, and an American Music Center Meet The Composer commission, the brooding ‘La Vallee Des Cloches’ suite.
The band played as a trio rather than as three people playing together, no mean feat in itself, and were at their best when they each played three different time signatures collectively improvising, intersecting in all the right places. It was great to hear Yahel, long haired and hirsute, and not a frequent visitor to London these days, playing piano as he is usually known as an organ player. Musicians who play the organ as well as he does when they play piano, particularly the Pizza's fine Steinway, have great attack when they hit the piano keys and a different sound. I liked his Brahmsian melodic runs, soulful piano licks and fast facility reacting super quickly to chord changes from the bass and brushstrokes from the kit alike. Yahel can improvise spontaneously composing melodies inspired by the head while keeping the harmony interesting.
Biolcati is a marvel. In the summer with Lionel Loueke and Ferenc Nemeth he was on great form, and here particularly on what I assume was at one stage some headwarp clave as well as double time sections his long fingered forays moved off into outergalactic bass space while Biolcati remained as cool as a cucumber. Slocum finished a long but satisfying first set with 'Jacaranda', the first track from After The Storm, inspired by his time living in sunny California. Fine writing and an elegant stylist, a little like the UK’s Josh Blackmore with touches of Jeff Ballard, no wonder Erskine said of Slocum rating him highly: “The man has found his drumming voice, and at an early age”. One to watch out for when he returns without a doubt.
– Stephen Graham