Decoy vol.1 Spirit – ****

Decoy are a real powerhouse of a nad that play music that’s as coherent and concise as it is freely improvised. Maybe it’s the sound of the B3 but somehow this record just evokes so many memories for me. It’s everything from ‘The Abominable’ Dr. Phibes to Graham Bind, Brian Auger, Keith Emerson and Rick Wright. It footnotes Jimmy Smith and Jack McDuff, before spiralling off into Larry Young, Lifetime and Lonnie Liston Smith. Make no mistake guys, this is an improvising trio that rocks and swings so hard it’s dangerous. If drummer Steve Noble and Alex Hawkins power this storm, then John Edwards is perhaps the only bassist who could hold the line in this maelstrom and even force the pace. It’s not all relentless. This stuff gets downright spooky at times, It got me thinking about sci-fi movies like 2001, Solaris and Alien. It made me want to dig out all those records, watch those films and set the controls for the heart of the sun. That’s how good it is.

…and also one of our gig with Joe McPhee (for news on the recording of which , watch this space…)

Cafe Oto happens in an old boozer that seems to be in the process of conversion, though into what it’s hard to guess. It oozes low-dive credibility and drips atmosphere. Add to that intelligent programming and an open-minded audience and you have Cafe Oto’s recipe for success.

There’s a hip informality about the place that seemed to suit Chicago tenor player Joe McPhee very nicely. Not that there was anything remotely langorous about him or Decoy. This was a night of full-on, righteous free jazz.

Amazingly, McPhee had never played with the group before, though both sets appeared so seemless and coherent. As for Decoy, this excellent organ-led free-improvising trio might just be the best new band to emerge this year, Alexander Hawkins, a fine piano player, is also an incredible organist – more Keith Emerson than Jimmy Smith, more Larry Young than Graham Bond. And with a rhythm section of Steve Noble and John Edwards, this is a band that redefine the words ’shock and awe’.

McPhee was as mighty as he was magnificent with a tenor sound that could lay waste to cities. Just pray god, he only ever uses it for peaceful purposes. And you could, as ever, walk on the bass lines that John Edwards plays, while Steve Noble rolled and rage [sic] around the beat. And yet the two sets were quite different. Where the first locked together from the git-go and flowed effortlessly through gospel, blues and almost middle-eastern sounding modes, the second began with a fractured, angular internal dialogue. It was as if having met and spoken, they now needed to dig deeper to find that common core. At times, you just held your breath, as the dynamic built demanding release. Then suddenly it came, wave after wave, surge after surge to final and blessed relief.

Anyway, just to say that the Jazz on 3 show I recorded with my Ensemble is going out on Monday, February 15th at 11.15pm on BBC Radio 3. I’m really pleased with the music we got down, and I feel that the group has found some exciting new directions on top of those we investigated on the album. Some new tunes, compositional techniques, and tone colours too (electronics for the first time in this set…)

Also on the show, I discuss with Jez three tracks which influenced the writing for the group…and the programme finishes with a wonderful short solo session from Joe McPhee (recorded the day after we played as part of the Decoy album launch night).

Hope it sounds good! In passing, I can unreservedly recommend this week’s show too, because I was at the gig which it presents…Craig Taborn’s trio at the Vortex (with Thomas Morgan and Gerald Cleaver). It was a really extraordinary gig, so I’m definitely looking forward to catching it again…Taborn not so much playing inside/outside, as showing instead that there’s no difference (apart from in a strict harmonic sense), so long as you know your instrument and its heritage…

Finally, just in case anyone is in Madrid next week:

Tuesday February 9th: Dominic Lash Trio – AH, p; DL, b; Javier Carmona, d – Le Swing Jazz Club

Wednesday February 10th: Barkingside – Alex Ward, cl; AH, p; Dominic Lash, b; Paul May, perc – Hurta Cordel International Festival

Oh, and finally finally – for anyone in London with their dancing shoes…watch out for the return after a short break of Big Train’s Haymaker at Luminaire. Funky.

And moving back 656 years, if years they are in the title of the book…I’m very flattered to have been named by four journalists in Jazzwise’s end-of-year double issue in that magazine’s ‘Into Tomorrow: Who to look out for in 2010′ feature…I was kindly chosen by John Fordham of The Guardian, the BBC’s Jazz on 3 programme, Duncan Heining of Jazzwise, and Oliver Weindling of the Vortex Jazz Club.

I was also really flattered to have ‘No Now is So’ mentioned in various end of year ‘top ten’-type lists…among them Clifford Allen’s at Ni Kantu (Clifford kindly also nominated the album as best debut in the Village Voice), Derek Taylor’s for Dusted, and Bill Shoemaker’s submission to the Village Voice. Mr Shoemaker was also kind enough to name mine the best debut album of 2009.

So moving into 2010, hopefully exciting things…look out for The Convergence Quartet’s second album, and first studio recording, Song/Dance, coming on Clean Feed in the Autumn…Barkingside in Madrid in February…my Ensemble on tour in July, and then into the studio…and lots more…

A plug for my first gig of the year, an outing with a new(-ish) quartet: Shabaka Hutchings (tenor saxophone, bass clarinet); Dominic Lash (bass); Mark Sanders (drums); and yours truly on piano. Original compositions, plus maybe some Lacy, Ornette, etc…who knows…

Please do come out to the Vortex on Tuesday, January 5th – should be a great evening. Here’s a link for tickets: hope to see you there!

The whole show will be broadcast in February…more when I have a confirmed date!

Anyhow – spent the last 10 days in New York. A couple of gigs with the wonderful band of Rob Brown, Ted Daniel, Mark Helias, and Harris Eisenstadt, plus a recording with the same guys. I took some South African music out there, and the session felt great…we’ve got some lovely stuff down by Johnny Dyani, Mongezi, Dudu, and others…so hopefully more on this soon. Those guys are incredible players, and I think the rhythm section of Mark and Harris has spoilt me for I don’t know how long…those two sound amazing together (again - obviously!; but it bears saying) .

By the way – as I type, listening to Horace Tapscott, ‘Live at Lobero’s Vol.1′. Wow. This guy is one of THE great pianists, period. Why is he not better known? Also – possibly even less known, if that’s possible – Sonship Theus on drums. A monster player – totally individual sound to his set-up, and propulsive as you like.

‘Legendary saxophonist and pocket trumpet maverick, based in Poughkeepsie, NY, makes an incredibly rare London appearance, for a two night residency that sees him leading a top-notch left-field UK trio. He’s joined by the heavyweight bass/drum pairing of Edwards and Noble with the prodigiously talented Hawkins on Hammond organ for some explosive improv workouts.’

Tickets are apparently selling fast, so booking advised. Do say hello if you make it along!

In other news…back to the practice room with  a vengeance, after getting freaked out by how ridiculously awesome Errol Garner’s left hand is. And the right’s none-too-shabby…

This is a new band – ‘Decoy’ – with the awesome bass/drums team of John Edwards and Steve Noble, and myself on Hammond organ. First recording session for this album resulted in an explosion, as somehow the (otherwise lovely) C3 in Eastcote Studios decided it didn’t want to be played that day (before a single take was put down, in fact…) But second session went really well, to the extent that we actually ended up with two albums’ worth of material…so: Volume 1: Spirit (on CD), and Volume 2: The Deep (a limited edition vinyl release) will soon be out on Bo’Weavil.

Anyway – a real privilege to record with Steve and John…as you can hear on the record, they’re an uncannily locked-in duo, and I think we made some interesting, and really pretty different, music.

And advanced notice – we launch the records at Cafe Oto on December 11th next month with legend Joe McPhee on tenor and pocket trumpet…should be a nice one!

real creativity needs to occur not by playing something that you been playing over and over again and playing some variation of it, but to create something in the moment, right in the moment. That’s creative improvisation. To be able to approach a musical terrain and you’ve got all these solutions for it, I don’t consider that creative at this point. In retrospect, when I go back and listen to older music, it was fresh at one time, for the players that played it when they first encountered that music, you know, like Dizzy Gillespie. But now, institutions, universities, colleges and music schools have all come up with solutions that’s been taught to all of the players out here, and they all have a way of approaching stuff. I don’t consider that creative at all. See, the way that Johnny Griffin came at a piece, as opposed to the way Paul Gonsalves came at a piece as opposed to the way that Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis came at a piece, the same piece of music, you couldn’t even compare. There was nothing similar. Or Don Byas, or anyone else. But now everything has been studied, catalogued, and made a methodology. It’s a methodology now that’s taught, and players learn these methodologies, and they’re playing methodologies more than they’re playing ideas.