Music / British jazz
Review: Fergus McCreadie Trio/Tiny Chapter, The Mount Without
When you say that music is intense it can sound a bit daunting, almost like an assault on the listener. But music can sometimes be intensely thrilling, rewarding your undivided attention with immense pleasure. These two contrasting acts proved to be just that.
Tiny Chapter (pic: Lizzie Goldsack)
Tiny Chapter is the solo personification of Waldo’s Gift’s virtuoso guitarist Alun Elliott-Williams, an act which is focused as much on his voice as his Fender. And what a voice it is – a delicately controlled falsetto with the purity of a cathedral choirboy. From the outset it was deployed as the weft of ambient electronic tapestries, firstly by himself alone using guitar, loop pedals and effects to elaborate over a loping riff very reminiscent of Peter Green’s Albatross.
Tiny Chapter: Rob Pemberton, Tara Lily Klein (pic: Lizzie Goldsack)
Then he was joined by producers Tara Lily Klein (aka t l k) and Rob Pemberton with We Are Leif vocalist Louise Victoria, enabling a richer blend of vocal harmonies and a fuller sound spectrum. As the debut of his newly released EP I Was Saved By The Beauty Of The World it was a fascinating sequence of musical ideas ranging from orchestral backwashes to simply strung out guitar or vocal duets. Moments of quivering sub-bass filled the Mount Without’s cavernous interior like a church organ supporting an anguished off-kilter choir. It was as if Brian Wilson had decided to start again but without the pop music references. Naturally it finished with Alun alone once more ‘doing what I like best’ and rounding off a very satisfying set by improvising a complex melodic structure from looping voice and guitar.
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Fergus McCreadie (pic: Lizzie Goldsack)
Hunched over the grand piano at the dead centre of The Mount Without – this was an ‘in the round’ set up – at first Fergus McCreadie seemed to be picking up the light toned arpeggios that had closed Tiny Chapter’s set, subtly modulating them.Then, slowly broadening the range and taking it further down the keyboard, he expanded into the harmonically rich and rhythmically driven melody of North, the opening track of his debut album Cairn. As David Bowden’s bass and Stephen Henderson’s drums interjected, the time signature shifted and a new folksier tune emerged in a looser piano style.
Thus began a fluent sequence of music combining a seemingly endless stream of ideas reinventing the piece over and over. Moments of torrential cross-rhythms parachuted out into simple tune statements, a bass solo, a pulsing monotone piano or shuffling brushed drumming. When they finally released the unified trio version of the tune it felt exhilarating. And it was, yes, intense – a teasing challenge to keep up with the pianist’s thought processes.
Fergus McCreadie Trio (pic: Lizzie Goldsack)
From that promising start the music just grew and grew. There were lyrical melodic interludes, dazzlingly speedy jigs, moments of jazzy swing, Scots snaps … all woven together by McCreadie’s distinctive musical vision. You could hear a wealth of listening behind his playing, with techniques derived from classical as well as jazz and folk traditions.
What was truly impressive was his stamina, both creatively in marshalling the flow of his ideas and physically in terms of driving his fingers through those remorselessly repetitive arpeggios. It all felt like important music to be savoured to the full and the audience responded with intense listening so that whenever there were quiet periods the cavernous silence of the high-ceilinged room was itself a presence.
David Bowden (bass), Stephen Henderson (drums). (pic: Lizzie Goldsack)
This was a trio gig and it would be very unfair to not acknowledge the contributions of David Bowden, the bass player, and drummer Stephen Henderson – both are excellent musicians, each had distinguished solos and played immaculately throughout – but it has to be acknowledged that Fergus McCreadie has taken his music to another level, one few players ever achieve. That he is still only in his mid-twenties makes it all the more impressive and, delightfully, promises even more great things to come.
All pictures by Lizzie Goldsack
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