Skip to main content

Empirical - bringing wonder with 'Wonder Is The Beginning'

One of my favourite contemporary jazz groups - Empirical - has a new album out. Wonder is the Beginning brings the award-winning quartet back with the sound of hard-working young men who know their jazz.

Since the four - Nathaniel Facey (alto sax), Tom Farmer (double bass), Lewis Wright (vibraphone) and Shaney Forbes (drums) came together more than 15 years ago, they have brought an intensity and quality of jazz composition and improvisation that makes those awards richly-deserved. There is a maturity to their work together that shows how well they all work together.

For Wonder is the Beginning, Empirical have imported two more of the stalwarts of the UK jazz scene in the shape and sound of Alex Hitchcock (tenor sax) and Jason Rebello (piano).

If jazz is defined by the familiar and also the new, that definition is writ large across Wonder Is The Beginning.

The seven tracks bring these six musicians together in a way that is still Empirical - but more so. The compositions themselves are artful and considered, while the improvisations bring the individuality of the artists to the fore.

Outstanding track She Moves takes a waltz theme that has a sparsity that allows Rebello particularly to open up a contrapuntal rhythmic drive before the vibes of Wright take over the improvisation. For a real taste of what these six musicians do best, watch the video performance of The Naitoku and see how these guys perform together.

Wonder is the Beginning is a wonderful, playful but intense declaration of a jazz life that all these musicians share.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Maria Schneider: Live at The Barbican

Tonight’s performance in the main hall at London’s Barbican Centre confirmed Maria Schneider ’s position as one of the finest composers of our generation. Working with the sublime Oslo Jazz Ensemble (formerly Denada), Schneider presented a selection of tunes from her ‘Data Lords’ double album from 2020 and the result was simply extraordinary. Photo credit @Hilary Seabrook With a host of Grammy awards and a Pulitzer Prize nomination for Data Lords , Schneider has proved her right to stand on the Barbican stage in front of one of the finest ensembles in the world. Her music allows every member to shine, individually and collectively. Sax players who double on clarinet, bass clarinet, flute and alto flute, trumpets and flugelhorns, an accordion and multiple percussion pieces wielded by the drummer collectively provide a range of timbres, textures and dynamics that thrilled this audience. The Data Lords  compositions celebrate everything that is wonderful about nature, as well as all ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Big Wade - 'Piano Man' out now

Big Wade and Black Swan Theory collectively blends funk, soul, jazz and everything that fills the cracks between those genres: his new album -  Piano Man - on all major streaming platforms ahead of the Piano Man Tour 2024 , which has dates across the US. Piano Man  brings a selection of original and covers, including a stunning version of Autumn Leaves , which reinvents the song as the funky, electronic Autumn . Big Wade's voice takes the song's melody and improvises around and around, with backing vocals and a deliberately sparse arrangement underpinning the song. Similarly, on Children of the Ghetto , the lead and backing vocals blend in with the soulful musicians of Black Swan Theory. Electronics are used with dexterity, often expanding the vocal lines, as in the ethereal and ghostly opening of Don't Let Me Go . However, the tools never dominate - simply adding depth and layers to the funk. Never more than when Big Wade enters a new world in Interludes , including vocals...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Darius Brubeck Quartet: Live at Jazz Cafe Posk

My first visit to Jazz Cafe Posk in London's Hammersmith coincided with the 60th anniversary of Posk - The Polish Social and Cultural Association - and the first performance in the club by pianist and composer Darius Brubeck. Photo credit @ Hilary Seabrook Darius was 10 when he joined his father on a historic tour of Poland. The Dave Brubeck Quartet toured Poland from 6 to 18 March 1958, just three years after the communist regime's ban on jazz was lifted. Without a doubt, this was the biggest jazz event in post-war Poland, with the archetypal and hugely successful outfit of Dave Brubeck (piano), Paul Desmond (alto sax), Eugene Wright (bass) and Joe Morello (drums). Sixty years later, in  2018, Darius took his own quartet - the same one he brought to Posk in May 2024 - to Poland for a significant tour, recorded and released as the Live in Poland album. Several of the tracks from this album were in the set at Posk and this quartet displayed in depth the benefits of playing to...
Post a Comment
Read more