CD Review: The Quentin Collins/Brandon Allen Quartet - What's It Gonna Be?

The Quentin Collins/Brandon Allen Quartet - What's It Gonna Be?
(Sunlightsquare Records SUNCD010, CD Review by Chris Parker)

From its hard-driving opener (tenor player Brandon Allen's What's It Gonna Be? to its infectiously lively closer (drummer Enzo Zirilli's mix of 'Tea for Two' with an almost 'Sidewinder'-ish shuffle rhythm, 'Teeth for Tooth'), this album harks back to the heyday of hard bop, recalling not only the Lee Morgan or Freddie Hubbard albums so beloved of co-leader, trumpeter Quentin Collins, but also (courtesy of Ross Stanley's evocative organ sound) the classic albums of Jimmy Smith and his ilk.

All its tracks except a radio-friendly visit to Stevie Wonder's 'Smile Please', sung by Natalie Williams, are in-band originals intelligently programmed to move between bustling swagger and moody slower pieces, but whether they're rattling through the former or brooding through the latter, the quartet has a breezy vigour and an unfussy interactive ease that can't fail to impress.

Collins is a refreshingly straightforward player, blazing and flaring on open trumpet, subtly noodling through a mute, or crooning through his flugelhorn as appropriate; Allen is a perfect frontline partner, his rich, powerful sound enabling him to steam through up-tempo numbers and channel tenderness through quieter ones; the rhythm section (buoyed by Stanley's deft bass pedals and sparked by Zirilli's crisply assertive drumming) bristles with disciplined authority – overall, this is an unequivocally enjoyable, immediately accessible but consistently musicianly album.

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

Review: Quentin Collins/Brandon Allen Quartet

Quentin Collins/Brandon Allen Quartet
(Ray's Jazz Cafe at Foyle's, 28th March 2011, Review by Chris Parker

In an interview in April 2007 to mark the release of his debut album, If Not Now, Then When?, trumpeter Quentin Collins (above) was already thinking of a follow-up recording which, he hoped, would be 'more melodic', with fewer 'over-complicated chord sequences' than his first Sunlightsquare CD. To achieve this aim, he could not have chosen a more suitable frontline partner than Australian tenor player Brandon Allen. In a jazz world that seems to be increasingly dominated by music-school graduates determined to explore the tricksiest chord sequences they can think up, Collins and Allen are something of a bracing tonic, their approach harking back to the classic jazz of the 1950s and 1960s epitomised by the output of the Blue Note label, but with its roots in bebop, Basie and Ellington.

In that same interview, indeed, Collins, after citing Miles Davis, Lee Morgan and Freddie Hubbard as important influences ('powerful, great music'), said unequivocally: 'I'm basically an Ellington disciple and love bebop. I think the history's very important, so I always listen to old records, right back to the 1930s.'

Given these predilections, it was no surprise to find the Collins/Allen quartet (completed by organist Ross Stanley and drummer Enzo Zirilli) delivering over an hour of unfussy but melodic hard bop, delivered with grace, but infused with zip and bristling with bustling energy. They began proceedings with the title-track of their new album, What's It Gonna Be? (Collins appearing to have a penchant for the interrogative in his titles), on which both Collins's rattling vigour and flaring brilliance and Allen's driving power (Tubby Hayes seems to be the model most frequently mentioned in accounts of his playing, and with good reason) were given free rein. The rest of the set, particularly a Zirilli take on 'Tea for Two' entitled 'Teeth for Tooth' (don't ask), was similarly vital and unpretentious. All four participants -plus the impressive trombonist Trevor Mires who made a guest appearance - were striking sparks off each other, both in their swiftly traded solos and in their longer excursions over the accommodating sequences provided for them by Collins and Allen's bright, accessible themes.

A ballad, 'Dark Shadows', brought out Allen's more contemplative side, his solo a little gem imbued with bruised tenderness, but overall, this was an irresistibly lively, even sassy performance, and a great showcase (as it was intended to be, of course) for the band's forthcoming album.