Music / jazz moonlight saving time emily wright
Review: Moonlight Saving Time, Future Inns
It’s always good when a local band pops in for a home gig during a tour, and there was a good turnout in expectation of much heralded new material being aired hear as a warm-up to Moonlight Saving Time’s imminent appearance at the London Jazz Festival.
Interestingly the band weren’t featuring their normal line-up, with Jake McMurchie’s sax replacing Nick Malcolm’s trumpet and John Turville behind the piano instead of Dale Hambridge. The rhythm core of Will Harris (bass) and Mark Whitlam (drums) remained, of course, as did irreplaceable vocalist Emily Wright.
Having started with old favourite Douala the two visitors made an immediate impression on the sound, McMurchies fluent soprano sax insinuated itself around Turville’s expressive openness which led to a solo piano bridge of Jarrett-like elegance. There’s Silence Here followed, a new song spelled with bell-like precision by Emily Wright’s modulated vocals, while the instrumental Zeus grew from a tight-woven sax loop foundation .
The new material had all the band’s hallmarks – tight arrangements, intricate construction, room to improvise – but there was a greater spaciousness that made good use of pairings like sax and bass, or voice and sax, voice and drums. Desire For Nothing Known was a masterpiece in controlled dynamics, reaching a frenzied peak that deconstructed organically back to a simple bass phrase.
There were two pieces that really stood out, however, both very much songs (as opposed to vocalizing, something Emily Wright is remarkably skilled at). The first was an arrangement of John Ireland’s setting of Masefield’s poem ‘Sea Fever’, introduced with an Indian sonority before the singer laid the vivid images of the lyrics out with consummate clarity and poise in a simple piano-led setting. The performance brought comparisons with June Tabor in Quercus to mind – a serious compliment well deserved. The other highlight was the new single, released that day, a cover of the Calvin Harris song I’m Not Alone, a gospel piano ushering in a superbly economical arrangement totally befitting the lyrics and giving Emily Wright the perfect palette for her light-touch vocals. With so much instrumental talent on stage it was poignant that it was the restrained simplicity of that number that lingered longest on the cold ride home.
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