Emma Rawicz elevates with Visitor From Everywhere band at Kings Place

The musical evolution of Emma Rawicz is something quite special to witness, as it’s happening across many gigs, in many countries and continually shows her artistic growth. It’s a tandem path too, between her increasingly authoritative tenor and soprano sax playing, and her ever-growing compositional repertoire – each setting an opportunity to write something fresh and explore new ideas.

The Visitor From Everywhere band was something of a dream team of players who orbit Rawicz, either in a similar sphere stylistically, or as regular collaborators. Two senior players, pianist Jason Rebello and trumpeter Laura Jurd, have both been feted in the same way Rawicz is now, and here they bring a calm gravitas to the band – contrasting nicely with Anton Eger’s artful, ever-probing yet hyperactive drumming, and the reliably supple virtuosity of Conor Chaplin’s double bass. Wayne Shorter’s influence was acknowledged early on by Rawicz, and while the first set closed with a pretty straight reading of his bouncing ‘Yes and No’, the sax legend’s airy writing style was echoed through the many sublime horn arrangements that saw Jurd and Rawicz harmonise perfectly over the frenetic rhythm section, painterly wide intervals sketching out the harmonic colours of Emma’s highly personal sound palette.

Mostly playing new material composed especially for this line-up, the set moved through some knotty unison grooves, many pieces featuring open sections underpinned with a pensive pedal point, before a shifting chord sequence was cued. A beautiful ballad, ‘Komorebi’, gave Chaplin an opportunity to stretch out lyrically too.

Contrasting approaches were taken to the solos – Rebello happy to tease out his ideas, smiling up at his bandmates as he built his lines with swinging precision – Jurd too favouring rhythm as a starting point for some compelling improvisations, finding thrilling new angles to explore. Rawicz is of course is technically commanding, yet prioritises melodic development over chops – climbing through the registers – vaulting octave leaps counterpointing low frequency runs. It feels like she’s on the cusp of really letting go, into some full throated roars – until then one has to keep remembering she’s still only 22, and astonishingly gifted. And with the band all reading their parts from reams of sheet music, noticeably Rawicz had no scores herself, the entire set memorised and internalised, played eyes shut in total concentration.

This is a line-up with huge potential – perhaps too weighty to be a regular touring band – but that connection with Jurd is special, the two women audibly aligned aesthetically, perfectly complementing each other’s sound and musical approach, it’d be wonderful to hear them working together more often.