CD Review: The Nigel Price Organ Trio + Guests - Heads & Tales

The Nigel Price Organ Trio Plus Alex Garnett and Snowboy - Heads & Tales
(Woodville RecordsWVCD135. CD Review by Tony Heiberg)

Hard swinging, bluesy, melodic, inventive and virtuostic are just some of the ways in which Nigel Price's world class guitar playing comes across. He also plays chords and harmonies exquisitely and, on the Heads section of his two-in-one CD release, and has written some catchy beboppish 'heads' or - melodies - to the casual listener, over the chord progressions of the standard tunes he plays on double tracked guitars on Tales, the second CD in this package.

This approach to composition is something of a jazz tradition. Heads opens with the wittily retitled It's Not Alright With Me in which Price's equally accomplished colleagues are all featured in turn. The recording is very well mixed. Organist Pete Whittaker's perfect bass lines lock in with drummer Matt Home's swinging and sensitive drumming throughout the recording, while Alex Garnett constructs melodically intriguing solos on both tenor and baritone saxes - as does Whittaker on the organ.

Along with Price's originals, the band play their own arrangements of Wes Montgomery's Four On Six and Lee Konitz's challenging Subconcious-Lee with aplomb. Another highlight is Price's Stealing Time, a Latin number based on the changes of Speak Low, which features a memorable head and an interesting section where Snowboy, on congas, swaps subtle eight bar phrases with Home's drums. Heads closes with the swinging All In which features another strong head over the chords of Body And Soul and great improvisations by messrs Price, Whittaker, Home and Garnett.

I found the Tales CD every bit as enjoyable as solo and double-tracked guitar offerings by John Mclaughlin, Joe Pass, Pat Metheny and Martin Taylor. The opening track, If I Were A Bell, has a chorus featuring a strong harmony line from the two guitars. Price's second guitar alternates a two-feel with chords and walking bass lines throughout the nine tracks. Indeed, the swing and Latin tunes are highly rhythmic toe-tappers and the ballads are coloured with harmonics and ad libitum sections with revoicings and passing chords. Then too, the virtuostic solos tell a melodious story which both swings and engages the mind.

With Heads & Tales the listener is the winner whichever way the coin lands. Heads & Tales is available from HMV, Amazon and Nigel Price's website

Preview: Highgate Jazz with Soul Festival

Highgate Jazz With Soul Festival. The Old Crown, Highgate. Saturday 24th and Sunday 25th September. (Preview by Fran Hardcastle.)

This weekend sees the inaugural Highgate Jazz and Soul Festival. In days of cuts to jazz funding, it is always cheering to find musicians supporting other musicians and creating new jazz treats for audiences.

A quick glance at the programme shows plenty of home grown favourites at a bargain ticket price. There are a dozen gigs plus jam sessions.

Saturday’s highlights include an early bird special from Alex Garnett with Steve Fishwick and a solo show from wit and voice extraordinaire, Liane Carroll.

On Sunday, the Next Generation are bound to capture attention. Must see of the whole weekend will be Tim Lapthorn Trio with the Navarra String Quartet. Curator and host of the festival,Brandon Allen will also be livening things up with his Double Whiskey Amnesia.

Tickets also include an exhibition by painter Jamie Boyd.

Saturday 24th September

1.30pm Alex Garnett/Steve Fishwick Quintet

3pm Quentin Collins/Brandon Allen Quartet

4.30pm Abigail Boyd Quartet plus guests

6pm Liane Carroll (solo)

7.30pm Michael Mwenso feat. Leon Greening

9pm Double Whiskey Amnesia (upstairs- Funky Club Night!)

11pm-1am Jam session



Sunday 25th September

1.30pm Allison Neale Quartet

3pm Pete King Quartet (upstairs)

4.30pm Next Generation feat. Oneke Tebbs, Ruben Fox, Tyrone Isaac-Stuart and Mark Kavuma!
5.30pm Tim Lapthorn Trio with the Navarra String Quartet (upstairs)

6.45pm Trevor Mires/Tom White Group
7.45pm/8pm The Brandon Allen Sextet feat. Nigel Hitchcock and Mark Nightingale (upstairs)
9.15pm-10.30pm End of festival jam session.

Tickets on 0207 281 7608 /  facebook.com/Highgatejazzwithsoulfestival

CD Review: Alex Garnett - Serpent

Alex Garnett - Serpent
(Whirlwind Recordings WR4615. CD Review by Chris Parker

Born in 1970, and having performed in 30-odd countries worldwide in a career that's seen him work with everyone from John Dankworth and Humphrey Lyttelton to the Rolling Stones and Phil Robson, Alex Garnett has waited till now to produce his first album featuring his own material.

He's done it in style, mind you: fronting a stellar, snappy, full-on rhythm section (pianist Anthony Wonsey, bassist Michael Janisch, drummer Willie Jones III) and pulling out all the stops with a variety of great originals embracing everything from tumultuous bop to bruised ballads and even a no-holds-barred closer, 'Atonement' based (loosely) on 'The Saints'.

Garnett is a muscular, gutsy but sensitive saxophonist (his heroes range from Hank Mobley, Joe Henderson and Dexter Gordon to George Garzone and Joe Lovano), and he knows how to spark a band – not that this one, driven by the rousing, crackling energy of Jones and the lithe exuberance of Janisch, not to mention the sparkling dexterity of Wonsey, needs much encouragement – and this is, consequently, a thoroughly enjoyable and refreshingly unpretentious album, unfussily recorded in what sound like first takes, so that the overall effect is of a hot live performance.


Tour Dates

Review: Alex Garnett Quartet

“It’s taken a long time to get this together.” Having recently turned 40, Alex Garnett has just recorded his debut album “Serpent” (Whirlwind Recordings) He played the tunes from the album to a small but very appreciative audience at the 606 last Thursday, the night before the Easter holidays.

Garnett seemed to want to apologise for his hesitancy. Why? He has had a career as a trusted and in-demand sideman for most of the past two decades. He has that rare ability to be completely at home on alto and tenor. He always has a story to tell when he plays. If he has not rushed into the role of leader, not been in a hurry to get a CD with his name on it into a marketplace which is small and hesitant, even at the best of times, it is something understandable, maybe evan to be praised.

The story of the production of the album is that Garnett went to New York with Michael Janisch, and that they recorded the new album in Brooklyn at Systems Two Studios. Appearing with Garnett and Janisch on the album are pianist Anthony Wonsey and drummer Willie Jones III.

Garnett talked about the mad energy of New York, and one larger than life character -a Latino Brooklyn carwash proprietor - who had unwittingly given his inspiration to a title for a tune: The Pimp.

The equivalents of Wonsey and Jones on the UK tour (*) have been Ross Stanley on piano and Enzo Zirilli on drums. The tightness, balance and expressiveness which this band could achieve at the unforgiving tempi of the faster numbers stays in the mind. While Zirilli resorted to using sheet music for a few of the numbers, Garnett, Janisch and Stanley played the whole gig from memory, and the interaction was constant, energetic and inspiring.

The tunes on the album are all originals but draw on a wide range of inspiration - and he leavened the mix with a couple of standards. Garnett mentioned the influence of a particular line of tenor players – Hank Mobley and Dexter Gordon – as well as Joe Henderson, for whom "the serpent" was a nickname. (The title also refers to the ophecleide or serpent, which Adolphe Sax was experimenting with when the saxophone emerged as one of the by-products.)

The interplay of Garnett and Janisch, particularly on the tune "Three or a Moor" which Garnett dedicated : " to my father's record collection," caught the ear. Garnett's style carries more than just a memory of that unique tenor player Hank Mobley, whose career was cut lamentably short by lung problems. One of his traits as a player - and Garnett is in the same mould - is often to use the first beat as a springboard, to hang behind it, to respond to it. Janish was laying down a strong first beat to the three-four bar, and just leaving the space, staying completely clear of the second beat so that Garnett could weave beautifully turned and infinitely varied responses to it. A further reminder of Mobleyishness came on a standard which Mobley himself recorded: "I Should Care."

This music is a personal statement which comes from very deep inside a fine musician. What you see is what you get, rather than concessions to fashion or edginesss. I thought of Paul Desmond's quip: "I was unfashionable before anyone knew who I was." These musicians don't chase fashion. They are what they are, and do what they do as well as anyone.

It has been worth the wait.

The new CD won’t be officially released until September. For the moment it is available from Michael Janisch’ Whirlwind Recordings website

(*)The Alex Garnett Quartet's eleven-date UK tour was made possible by the Jazz Services touring scheme.

More details of the album are on Ian Mann's Jazzmann site