Originally commissioned by Jazzwise for its 15th anniversary festival at Ronnie Scott's in 2012, Troyk-estra sees the three members of one of the UK's most idiosyncratic contemporary jazz-rooted ensembles Troyka write extended arrangements for originals and perform them alongside the Royal Academy Big Band. Providing one of the UK's most unorthodox spins – especially texturally and structurally – on contemporary jazz, they faced a real challenge in attempting to hit on the right approach to an ensemble arrangement of their pieces. Recorded by BBC's Jazz on 3 live at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival in 2013 under the direction of its jazz departmental leader/trumpeter Nick Smart, the recording's made up of mostly compositions from their previous acclaimed pair of albums, under anagrammatic pseudonyms though (something that probably whiled away some of those long hours spent on the road together). The band's strongest tunes: Montague's ‘Dr Ops’ (the title track of ‘Dropsy’) and the stoner Floydlike epic ‘Chaplin’, (now ‘Hip Clan’) come out sounding as cohesive as the originals. Further highlights include Blackmore's blues strutting, ‘Braze’ (‘Zebra’ from the eponymous debut) and Downes' dreamily raw, ‘Elegant Her’, with trumpeter Alex Bonney's eerie Miles-ish tones complementing Montague's Ry Cooder-like guitar, building gradually with excellent brass punctuations. If it can be even further tuned into this brilliantly quirky trio's many strengths, it's a project that definitely has legs.

Jazzwise spoke to Troyka's Chris Montague about the album

What was the greatest challenge in putting together the extended arrangements for your compositions originally written for Troyka?

We really didn't want to compromise what we do as a trio as it's taken years for us to develop this. The main thing was to augment how we play with these huge textures and detailed rhythmic elements in the horns. Also, because a big band isn't as reactive or agile as a trio during improvisation a lot of new sections had to be written to incorporate the horns, which hopefully feel like a bionic arm of the trio. We spent a long time in rehearsals making sure the big band felt like one massive rhythm section, often the horns are holding down the ‘comping part’ while the rhythm section is playing on top. It also felt like a challenge to avoid the more obvious big band writing devices, though I still think they're in there as they work! Hopefully it feels like a small group recording but with huge textures and variation.

What kind of experience have you had regarding writing big band arrangements?

I haven't had a lot of experience writing for big band and I don't think Kit or Josh have done too much either. I have written for horns a lot of times so I know what is roughly comfortable and which ranges to avoid etc. I hope people listen to this and think it sounds fresh. It was a very rewarding experience for us three to dive into the deep end.

What are your inspirations for Troyk-estra in that field?

In terms of influences, I listened to a lot of Marc Ducret Grand Ensemble. I love that band, the wonky, skronky groove it has. I love the way Ducret manages to write backings for the horn during the improv without resorting to clichés in that idiom. I think all three of us are huge fans of Loose Tubes albums and in particular Django's writing for his big band projects.

What can we expect next from Troyka?

We have a new trio record which is almost finished and we will be releasing that in 2014. It has been a great experience as we had the luxury of a long time to record in the studio. This has afforded us the ability to tinker with sound and to use a lot more overdubbing with percussion and layered guitar sounds.