Ruby Rushton: Ironside

Rating: ★★★

Record and Artist Details

Musicians:

Nick Walters (t)
Tim Carnegie (d)
Aidan Shepherd (p, ky, syn b)
Ed Cawthorne (f, s, ky)

Label:

22a Records (CD/LP)

June/2019

Media Format:

CD/LP

RecordDate:

date not stated

Better known as Tenderlonius, Ed Cawthorne reversed traditional steps to loving jazz, retracing the path of hip-hop and house records to find their sampled sources, and learning soprano sax aged 23, after adolescent beat-making. Ruby Rushton is named after his grandmother, a Surrey woman with her own frustrated artistic drives, and is Cawthorne's ‘dream’ outlet, a band where he can explore his love of Yusef Lateef, soundtracks and Coltrane New drummer Tim Carnegie's sometimes jerky, odd accents (on ‘Triceratops/The Caller’ especially) are the only real suggestion of wider dance culture, as Cawthorne luxuriates in spiritual jazz and 1970s soundtrack funk. His long, abrasive flute solo on ‘Prayer for Grenfell’, which then sinks into a sighing lament as if falling into a grave, is an uncharacteristic highlight. The flute's dancing swirl over Aidan Shepherd's punchy synth bass on the title-track, and Cawthorne's wah-wah soprano sax elsewhere, are more typical of a derivative but driving love letter to diverse aspects of an era, which tethers TV themes to Buddhist transcendence.

Follow us

Jazzwise Print

  • Latest print issues

From £5.83 / month

Subscribe

Jazzwise Digital Club

  • Latest digital issues
  • Digital archive since 1997
  • Download tracks from bonus compilation albums during the year
  • Reviews Database access

From £7.42 / month

Subscribe

Subscribe from only £5.83

Never miss an issue of the UK's biggest selling jazz magazine.

Subscribe

View the Current
Issue

Take a peek inside the latest issue of Jazzwise magazine.

Find out more