Review: Christine Tobin/ Phil Robson at LJF11

Christine Tobin/Phil Robson IMS Quintet
(Purcell Room, 15th November. Part of LJF11. Review by Chris Parker)

Christine Tobin's latest project features her song settings of the poems of W. B. Yeats. She actually began the composing process (responding to a commission from the National Library of Ireland) with a poem familiar to her since schooldays, 'Sailing to Byzantium', but she started this set with one of the most familiar opening lines in poetry: 'When you are old and grey and full of sleep …', from a poem recited to her by her first boyfriend in Ireland. The singular appropriateness of this choice was reflected throughout this moving and absorbing concert in the ease and natural assurance characterising her settings of a wide variety of Yeats's work.

Tobin is blessed not only with one of the most affecting and pure-toned voices in the music, but also with an unimpeachable ear for an insinuatingly lovely melody, so her touching interpretations did nothing but enhance the beauty and pathos of lines such as 'But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,/ And loved the sorrows of your changing face', or (from 'The Wild Swans at Coole') 'Among what rushes will they build/ By what lake's edge or pool/ Delight men's eyes when I awake some day/ To find they have flown away?', and her band, long-time associates Liam Noble (piano), Kate Shortt (cello), Dave Whitford (bass) and Phil Robson (guitar), were versatile and skilled enough to ensure that robust settings (particularly an appropriately powerful – even disturbing – version of the apocalyptic 'The Second Coming') were just as effective as the more lyrical material. This was simply a hauntingly beautiful concert, the perfect appetiser for Tobin's forthcoming Yeats album, to be released next year.

Phil Robson moved centre stage for the concert's second half, the launch of his band's new album, The Immeasurable Code (reviewed elsewhere on this site). A suite of pieces inspired by methods of human communication, originally commissioned by Derby Jazz, Robson's music sets his wide-ranging guitar playing (he is a past master at selecting the precise tone and timbre appropriate to particular pieces) against a sparkily vigorous but carefully calibrated band sound propelled by the controlled tumult of Ernesto Simpson's drums and Michael Janisch's driving bass. Sharing front-line duties with the quietly intense saxophones of Mark Turner and the virtuosic flute playing of Gareth Lockrane, Robson (as he had done throughout Tobin's set) not only produced a series of superb solos, blisteringly urgent one minute, dexterously delicate the next, but also subtly bound the band together with his deft, swooning chords.

The quality of his compositions, too, was impressive, embracing everything from relatively straightforward energetic bustles to more contemplative material that enabled Turner in particular to shine with his trademark slow-building, earnest ardour.

A thoroughly entertaining evening's music from two of the brightest stars in the UK jazz firmament.

The Immeasurable Code is on Whirlwind Recordings

CD Review: Phil Robson – The Immeasurable Code

Phil Robson – The Immeasurable Code
(Whirlwind Recordings. CD Review by Tom Gray)

The UK tour by guitarist Phil Robson’s IMS Quintet back in January earned glowing reviews and will undoubtedly feature among the live highlights of the year for many who made it. This album recorded during those live dates is packed with delights throughout its 70-plus minutes.

Much of the listening pleasure here stems from the sense of Robson, Mark Turner on saxes and Gareth Lockrane on flute really stretching out, using the extended space afforded to them to craft some elegant, engaging improvisations. Lockrane’s soaring opening statement on ‘Nassarius Beads’ sets a very high benchmark early on from which the group do not deviate.

The soloists’ stories all unfold over a dynamic backdrop, with Ernesto Simpson’s pin-sharp precision on drums paired with the robust, responsive bass playing of Michael Janisch.

Robson’s compositions are, however, much more than just blowing vehicles and there is plenty to admire in these succinct, punchy themes. The way Robson harnesses the textural possibilities of an unconventional combination of frontline instruments and subtly marries straight-ahead postbop with earthy, odd time signature grooves is reminiscent of the writing of Dave Holland (and the playing here is certainly worthy of one of Holland’s ensembles).

Highlights include the asymmetric funk of the title track, ingeniously constructed around a Morse code-like one note pattern from Lockrane’s piccolo, and the breezy swinger ‘The Instant Message’.Any listener who regrets not being there during the recording of this live album will get a second chance to see this fine group next month: they play the Purcell Room as part of the London Jazz Festival.


The CD will be issued on November 7th.

Purcell Room, 15th November, in the London Jazz Festival. Double Bill with Christine Tobin