Music / Jazz
Review: Gary Alesbrook – The Stories We Tell Ourselves, Future Inn
There’s a lot of work that lies behind any album release and, for all his relaxed demeanour, trumpeter Gary Alesbrook can’t but have been pretty stressed. Happily the London launch of Stories We Tell Ourselves had already gone well and it was a home crowd filling Future Inn’s downstairs jazz club. It all boded well, and so it would prove.
Anders Olinder, Gary Alesbrook, Will Harris and Ian Matthews
Like his previous album the new CD is a collection that ranges across a number of classic jazz styles but, where the predecessor featured classic songs from the movies, this was all original material. Inevitably the live version on offer tonight couldn’t offer all five vocalists from the record, but versatile Elliott Cole did an admirable dep job for the others. Sadly guitarist Matt Hopkins couldn’t make the gig either – his part was missed on the nippy cool school of Just One More Thing, though Gary’s bell-like muted trumpet expanded to compensate and drummer Ian Matthews took the opportunity for a thumping Art Blakey-style solo.
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It was a rare unleashed moment for the percussionist, following his discrete Latin hand-drumming throughout the soulful Going Home. That cool and bluesy number rode on Anders Olinder’s sparse piano and Will Harris’ steady bass with Elliott’s languid vocal framing a perfectly toned flugelhorn solo, the whole thing coming across convincingly like a mid-70s Quincy Jones arrangement. The bopping calypso mood of On My Way also proved an enjoyable ride for the band, Anders grinning as he chopped across the rhythm and Gary skating with the fluid smoothness of Chet Baker. The number gave Will the chance for a deft solo, running away with the melody with perfect timing and intonation.
It was good to see the band, and especially Gary himself, using the tunes as the starting point for some real jazz (rather than merely replicating the album). The more contemporary Nu Soul sound of Precious One began with Elliott and Ian in a beatbox vs drums play off and finished with a falsetto scat duel with flugelhorn, playfully framing the downbeat number. The classic blues structure of Last Orders lent itself to a fine workout with echoes of Horace Silver in the piano. These may have been newly minted tunes but they felt as well-grounded as a set of standards and thus the encore of Sunny Side of the Street fitted the occasion like a glove.
There’s no doubt that this album reflects a coming of age for Gary Alesbrook as composer and band leader, and his shrewd choice of co-conspirators was important in sustaining the consistency of the music across so diverse a selection of styles. This smaller band didn’t put a foot wrong all evening but it would be even better, no doubt, with Matt Hopkins’ guitar and Ruth Hammond’s tenor sax – both having played a part in the original recording. Nevertheless, whether on the jaunty Key Lime Pie, the fulsomely lyrical Anna or the blistering Fiddlesticks the album’s timeless quality and serious jazziness were equally brilliantly evoked.
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