Review: Tim Garland Quartet/Osmoid

There’s an enduring positivity about Tim Garland that infuses his music. It also gives him a youthful air that belies his statement that he and pianist Jason Rebello have a musical association that goes back 26 years. Opening the gig with a tune called Bright New Year Garland established that upbeat mood with a sparkling melody adorned with his trademark light-touch bebop soloing and then left space for Ant Law to give an astonishingly nimble Flamenco-inspired solo on a potentially cumbersome 12-string guitar. 

Equally exuberant was Yes To This, launched furiously on tenor sax before pulling back to a spacious guitar trio that finally swept in a luminous piano coda that picked out the theme and built a highly polished anthemic ending. And, despite its title, Sama’i For Peace was actually an urgent and funky workout based on the Arabic 10-beat rhythm and fuelled by increasingly torrential drumming from Asaf Sirkis. For this one Ant Law used an 8-string guitar to provide the bass line and Jason Rebello’s electric piano took a North African inflection that hinted at Ethiopian funk.

Though Tim Garland’s compositions were the mainstay the few covers picked were effective and appropriate: Chick Corea’s Windows provided a showcase for the bass clarinet, harmonised and loped into orchestral proportions, while Good Morning Heartache was suitably wrenched from a honking tenor sax over a thickening harmonic underlay on keyboards. 

Each number was arranged to allow the individuality of the four players to emerge and this is one of the band’s great strengths – that there is a distinct collective sound that fits each of these highly talented bandleaders and composers equally. Credit must go to Tim’s understanding of his personnel in the compositional process and also to the players for letting themselves fit into such a well-ordered context. It showed to best effect in the fairly free Eternal Greeting, a modal riffing number built around Sirkis’ ceramic Udu hand drum with lilting 12-string guitar balancing discursive tenor sax. The simple musical basis of the number was revisited as each player passed it around and the effect was to weave something coherent and structured that nevertheless held on to its spontaneity.

Obviously four such highly-regarded players are unlikely to deliver a poor performance but there was a quality of geniality between them that was no doubt fuelled by Tim Garland’s half-full glass approach and gave a warmth to the music and placed virtuosity in context. It added up to a feelgood experience that was nicely rounded off by new duo Osmoid’s aftershow downstairs – driving boogaloo and funk from Jonny Henderson’s Hammond and Matt Brown drumming making a perfect late evening soundtrack.