Jazz breaking news: Neil Cowley Trio Play Salisbury Gig To Kick Off New Series
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
The Salisbury Arts Centre plays host to the Neil Cowley Trio on Saturday 29 October, the first in a quarterly series of concerts coming ahead of the Naim label release in late-January of their fourth album The Face of Mount Molehill.
New bassist Rex Horan features for the first time on this release in the new-look NCT set-up playing on Molehill where is also joined by Eno guitarist Leo Abrahams as well as the Mount Molehill Strings.
Horan, from Australia, debuted for the NCT at the Dubai Jazz Festival earlier this year picking up the baton from the departing Richard Sadler who appeared on their first three albums, and performed for one of the last times at last year’s Cork Jazz Festival superb opening night show in the Everyman Palace in a double bill with the Robert Glasper Experiment.
The Salisbury gig on Saturday week is pianist Cowley, Rex Horan and drummer Evan Jenkins’ first UK significant concert appearance together since their Edinburgh Jazz Festival appearance in late-July. What they will play to the Wiltshire audience is unclear as the new material is officially under wraps until a London concert in March although the band may hint at the odd snippet or two of tracks from the album whose standout tracks in early listens include the formidable ‘Slims’, ‘Distance By Clockwork’ and the dance music-friendly ‘Mini Ha Ha.’
The NCT’s 2011 so far has been dominated by the recording and mixing of Molehill, the band’s second release for Naim following Radio Silence. In June they played the Spitalfields Summer Festival in London as a part of a fascinating double bill with Polar Bear at Shoreditch venue Village Underground, a space created around old London Underground train carriages recycled to form studios and the raw space of an old Victorian warehouse. Cowley’s signature jazz – Jarrett, Herbie, Esbjörn Svensson-grounded – soul and dance music-influenced piano sound outside the band has also been all over the radio and on the street, as he’s the pianist on Adele’s song ‘Rolling In The Deep’, having worked with the singer extensively on records.
Molehill was recorded following a Mayday with-strings evening show in the Arena of the Cheltenham Jazz Festival when a big crowd warmed to songs from the groundbreaking album Displaced, as well as Loud, Louder, Stop and particularly ‘His Nibs’, the band’s hit as Cowley with a fine sense of irony describes it.
– Stephen Graham
For tickets go to www.salisburyartscentre.co.uk