Pigfoot: 21st Century Acid Trad
Author: Selwyn Harris
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Musicians: |
Liam Noble (p) |
Label: |
Village Life |
Magazine Review Date: |
June/2014 |
Catalogue Number: |
131112VL |
RecordDate: |
January and April 2013 |
The album title looks like an ironic dig at those hastily invented sub-genres claiming to be the new way forward in jazz. At any rate new Brit quartet Pigfoot's debut on drummer-percussionist Paul Clarvis' long running Village Life label, is thankfully not the kind of overly self-conscious attempt at wacky deconstructionism it appears to be on the surface. For those who know the uncompromising figures on the London scene that make up Pigfoot, neither is it a Wynton Marsalis-style over-reverential repertory remake, although Loose Tubes star Chris Batchelor plays his very own mean version of ‘early jazz’ trumpet. Instead Pigfoot re-examines ‘hot jass’ in their own image. With a set made up of 1920-30s rags, old swing tunes, blues and spirituals, the most well known being ‘Basin Street Blues’, ‘Petite Fleur’ and ‘Mood Indigo’ this high quality live recording (on a pair of dates at the Vortex) is invested with some of the music's original spirit of rapture and sense of humour. The pianist Liam Noble's idiosyncratic turn of phrase reflects his deep understanding and inspiration from the pre-modernist period while youngest member, tuba player Oren Marshall, claims the bass role but adds his own playful, sonic-warping asides. And you can see the ecstatic smile on the world-class drummer Paul Clarvis as you listen to his charismatic playing. It's Trad dad, but not as we know it.

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