Review
Sometimes contemporary jazz albums are not bigged up for what they are but marked down for what they are not: namely a wheel-reinventing artistic statement. We tend to forget that not every listenable Duke or Miles album pushed the proverbial creative envelope, and that consolidation of established methodologies and vocabularies is a necessary thing in any genre.
This work by British pianist Stapleton is a case in point. Quietly rather than conspicuously adventurous, it has a solidly classicist leaning that will appeal to all those who kneel at the altar of Herbie, Bill Evans and Wayne Shorter circa 1961, a period during which the chordal escarpment of bebop was plateauing into a less frenzied, urbane modernism that was often less note heavy and did not take its foot off the earthiness of the blues.
Stapleton has a well-drilled quintet: drummer Elliot Bennett and double bassist Paula Gardiner are high precision without being overly flashy, and trumpeter Jonny Bruce makes no less of an impact for his pert, neat phrases. But the pick of the bunch is multi-reed player Ben Waghorn, an unheralded player who's had my vote since his first hustlings with Tommy Chase two decades ago. He's on superlative form. His tonal beauty, particularly on tenor, light and shade and pacing of his improvisations are really good, no more so than on the title-track, a languorous ballad that has the same kind of yearning quality as Shorter's Infant Eyes. The quintet displays considerable lightness of touch on this lean yet noble piece, as Stapleton's piano raises the dramatic stakes by way of a tremulous minor chord sequence while the perfectly weighted, in-unison horn line edges slowly but decisively to a potent climax.
Elsewhere the group gets a mildly gospel, soul jazz groove on and the use of a fender Rhodes also injects another more pointed, steely resonance into the mix, something that works effectively against the felt-like quality of Gardiner's bass. Articulate, sensitive and thoughtfully detailed, this is a smart application of core jazz values. --Kevin Le Gendre
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Review
Stapleton has a well-drilled quintet: drummer Elliot Bennett and double bassist Paula Gardiner are high precision without being overly flashy, and trumpeter Jonny Bruce makes no less of an impact for his pert, neat phrases. But the pick of the bunch is multi-reed player Ben Waghorn, an unheralded player who s had my vote since his first hustlings with Tommy Chase two decades ago. He s on superlative form. His tonal beauty, particularly on tenor, light and shade and pacing of his improvisations are really good, no more so than on the title-track, a languorous ballad that has the same kind of yearning quality as Shorter s Infant Eyes. The quintet displays considerable lightness of touch on this lean yet noble piece, as Stapleton s piano raises the dramatic stakes by way of a tremulous minor chord sequence while the perfectly weighted, in-unison horn line edges slowly but decisively to a potent climax. Elsewhere the group gets a mildly gospel, soul jazz groove on and the use of a fender Rhodes also injects another more pointed, steely resonance into the mix, something that works effectively against the felt-like quality of Gardiner s bass. Articulate, sensitive and thoughtfully detailed, this is a smart application of core jazz values. --bbc.co.uk
Regular jazz lineups are hard to sustain in the choppy waters of the jazz economy. Worthy successors to head-turning first albums are just as tough a proposition. And running an influential jazz record label is probably harder than both. The Wales-based pianist and composer Dave Stapleton has done all three: an ebullient third album, made for the label he co-founded, by the same powerful quintet he started out with. Stapleton draws on a wide range of enthusiasms, from Herbie Hancock's 1970s Mwandishi band to Keith Jarrett's quartet with Jan Garbarek. But the urge to reach the uncommitted fuels him too, and this album bustles with vibrant life just as much as his 2007 debut, The House Always Wins. There's a Bitches Brew undercurrent in its swirly Fender Rhodes sounds under a cracking backbeat on Horn, with Jonny Bruce's raw, early-jazz trumpet growls erupting over hissing cymbals. Some of the music suggests the lyrical funk of early Nucleus, whereas it is Stapleton's Hancock leanings and his canny arranger's plotting that colour the Spanish-tinged Socks First. Wig Wag, a vehicle for the solid tenor eloquence of Ben Waghorn, is full of scintillating countermelodic writing, and Daz Lightyear is a terrific theme that bubbles up from low down over a hypnotic piano repeat. As always with Stapleton's band, everybody plays as if they couldn't think of anything else they'd rather be doing. FOUR STARS --Guardian
The writing is catchy but densely composed, and the blowing from sax man Waghorn and trumpeter Bruce is simply sensational. FOUR STARS --Jazzwise
