Review: Moonlight Saving Time & Jason Yarde

Albert Jazz promoter Ian Storrer has built up a solid audience for his Hen & Chicken jazz gigs with a discriminating programme offering both national star names and the very best local performers. Tonight’s act combined both elements thanks to Bristol-based Moonlight Saving Time being able to call on Jazz Warrior saxophonist Jason Yarde to help launch their Meeting At Night album – a collaboration that reflects the band’s growing national stature and critical acclaim – and the room was filled to capacity as a consequence.

The new material dominated the evening, unsurprisingly, and quickly established a substantial development since the band’s first EP. More complex arrangements and structures gave the pieces a distinctive quality that matched Moonlight Saving Time’s identity as both an intelligent bunch of musicians and set of free-thinkers aiming to avoid the obvious in search of the interesting. The results, as demonstrated by the new album, are impressive but it was satisfying to hear them open up when played live.

Tracks like Clouds, Silence is There and From My Window retained their essential form, the latter almost an indy pop song with Will Harris’s electric bass and Dale Hambridge’s toy piano keyboard setting  propelling a nicely balanced mix of Emily Wright’s vocal and Nick Malcolm’s trumpet. The setting of John Masefield’s Sea Fever evolved from a Karnatic drone into a stately folk song, the balance of voice and fluttering soprano sax reminiscent of that between June Tabor and Ian Ballamy in their folk-jazz project Quercus (which was no bad thing).

The freer structure of others, notably Arthur’s Dance, Meeting At Night and an arrangement of Calvin Harris’s I’m Not Alone, allowed the players to use the tunes as a basis for fresh ideas, with a fine trumpet solo on the first, eloquent vocalising alto sax on the second and a remarkable dog-yelping  soprano sax on the last allure catching delights. I’m Not Alone was especially powerful, with the poignancy of the song built from a sparse introduction to a forceful anthem, while drummer Mark Whitlam unleashed himself on the freer form of Meeting At Night.

All in all it was an excellent performance of great material: each song was well chosen and perfectly delivered with Emily Wright’s easy confidence allowing her to both articulate and modulate her delivery and all the players had their chance to shine in solos yet also played their part in maintaining the tight collective sound. If Jason Yarde had only just seen the charts it certainly didn’t show as he delivered consistently interesting and appropriate solo contributions throughout. Moonlight Saving Time are a quality item, a contemporary addition to a fine tradition of English jazz which integrates the delivery of the song with the musical structure of the composition and is not afraid to nod towards John Masefield or Robert Browning as inspiration. As a collective it is clear there is great mutual respect between them, adding to their evident enjoyment in playing live. Hopefully the release of Meeting At Night will accelerate their introduction to the wider audience they definitely deserve.