Music / Jazz
Review: Dakhla Brass/j a d e, The Forge
If ever an act you like has a gig at The Forge make sure you catch it: the bijou loft-style venue’s great sound and easy ambience made this gig feel like a social gathering, albeit one with excellent music on offer. That the two contemporary jazz outfits on offer comprised nine of Bristol’s finest players, plus Brum’s splendid drummer Ric Yarborough, added to the amiability, with a fair few other players in the throng.
j a d e – Ric Yarborough, Will Harris, Nick Malcolm, Jake McMurchie
Ric was part of j a d e, trumpeter Nick Malcolm’s electro-acoustic quartet launched last year with Jake McMurchie playing sax and Will Harris on bass. Like Dakhla Brass the band’s avoidance of chord instruments such as piano or guitar leaves their music open to weaving, spontaneous harmony particularly in the interaction of trumpet and sax. Their original tunes had a cunning combination of fluency and rhythmic intrigue, the melodic lines uncluttered and measured even in the solo passages. Spiral was a good example, launched by Ric looping and scratching a sample from another of Nick’s bands, developed by a steady accretion of elements lightly layered over each other yet emphatically delivered, an idea taking musical shape with almost logical precision.
Will Harris and Nick Malcolm
There was enough variation in style to keep things interesting, too, from the ambient roll of 1916’s Miles Davis evocation to the assertive beats of Silent Grace with its slam-dub finale flourish or the subverted chamber jazz of the more tightly composed Real Is Real. The common factor was always restraint, the controlled use of their musical resources for maximum effect bringing a modern dance music production ethos to fine contemporary jazz.
is needed now More than ever
Dakhla Brass – Matt Brown, Riaan Vosloo and Charlotte Ostafew
There was a similar economy to the music of Dakhla Brass, paradoxically enhanced by their newly expanded line-up. Having launched as a drums’n’brass quartet in 2010 the band grew to a quintet with additional trombonist Liam Treasure in 2013 and now is a six piece with the arrival of Riaan Vosloo’s double bass. This string incursion has had an impact on the band’s previously brass-defined sound which featured Charlotte Ostafew’s distinctive baritone sax taking most of the bass duties. While freeing Charlotte up to play more melodically (or, indeed, to not play at all) the more usual double bass and drums rhythm section gave Dakhla Brass a more conventional jazz band sound whose careful composition recalled some of Mike Westbrook’s small ensemble works.
Matt Brown, Riaan Vosloo, Charlotte Ostafew, Liam Treasure, Sophie Stockham and Pete Judge
The broader palette suited new tune Lotus, the baritone and bass initially locked into a hard riff under a close harmony melodic line from Pete Judge’s trumpet and Sophie Stockham’s alto sax – all driven by drummer Matt Brown’s disrupted 11-time Motorik beat. This all somehow emerged as a four-piece brass chorale, looping with classic minimalism and finally blown away by a flamboyant trumpet solo.
Murmuration, by contrast, began tidily but soon erupted into entertaining chaos, a New Orleans brass sound busting through eventually. The closing number 5000, however, had an almost James Bond Theme feel to its smooth chorus and elegant baritone sax interlude.
For those who have greatly enjoyed the purity of the Dakhla Brass sound in the past this new version clearly needs reappraisal, so the arrival of their CD in the autumn will be an important milestone. There is no doubt that Riaan’s bass has fitted sympathetically into the band’s jazz style and the new tunes have been quick to exploit the greater breadth of textures at their disposal. But the occasional moments of brass chorale were also a reminder of their individuality and it will be important that this remains the underpinning of a band that proudly has brass in its name.
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