A very decent review of our brilliant alumnus group, Rhythmica by Duncan Heining following their recent performance in the Scarborough Jazz Festival.
Now in its tenth year, Scarborough Jazz Festival is a fixture in the UK’s jazz calendar. Situated on the east coast of North Yorkshire, Scarborough’s heyday was in the Victorian era, when coaches would pull up outside hotels like The Royal or The Crown to disgorge wealthy patrons wanting to take the waters in the local spa. Unlike other British spa towns such as Bath, Cheltenham and Leamington, Scarborough has lost the gloss that wealth and affluence brought to the town. Yet it has its own slightly down-at-heel charm and nothing can detract from the beauty of its setting around two bays.
These days the Spa is an entertainment complex, home to the usual eclectic mix of performances from ballet and classical music to tribute bands and standup comedians. At the end of each summer, however, these make way for a three day festival of excellent jazz, all extremely well-organized by the local jazz club and Festival Director, Mike Gordon.
Some regional festivals specialize in styles—big bands, trad or mainstream, for example.Scarborough’s a little different. It’s generalist in approach and, if it leans towards the modern-mainstream, it still likes to dip a toe or two in more adventurous waters. On this year’s final afternoon, two newish bands offered just such a hint of adventure, leading a willing audience into, what was for some, unchartered territory.
Rhythmica owes its origins to bassist Gary Crosby‘s Tomorrow’s Warriors project in London. Its music occupies that kind of Branford Marsalis/Terence Blanchard space that owes more than a little to mid- to late-sixties Blue Note, yet it also has something of its own. Their usual saxophonist, Zimbabwean Zem Audu, was absent on this occasion, his place taken admirably by Binker Golding. In fact, the intriguing thing was that as well as Golding, the band was using a new bassist in Rob Astley and yet their presence changed Rhythmica’s sound not one beat. Of course, in managing change, it helped to have a pianist of the caliber of Peter Edwards, but then he was just the most immediately striking in a quintet of quite outstanding young musicians. In fact, it seemed that, if anything, Rhythmica has developed an even greater sense of identity since its eponymous 2010 release on Dune Records.
In a way, it’s hard to say quite what it is that made the group’s music seem so fresh and new. After all, no jazz fan reared on hard bop could find this music difficult. It swung. It had drive and confidence and there were little occasional hints towards abstraction. Yet it felt like more than just a case of an older form being revisited. It was partly due to the role played by the rhythm section. Rob Astley’s bass sounded quite percussive in the mix—not just an anchor but a definite and defining pulse. And the way he linked with Andy Chapman’s bass drum brought a Siamese twin to mind—two hearts but effectively one conjoined body. That hard backbeat within a still flowing and subtle rhythm section provided an enormously strong platform for the soloist and that, in turn, allowed for a powerful sense of drama and dramatic tension in Rythmica’s music.
Rhythmica is at its best when eschewing standards or a more easy descent into Marsalis/Young Lions territory, though its take on Herbie Hancock‘s “The Sorcerer” was strikingly dark in mood. Its “Mr. J.J.” was a case in point—beautifully executed but missing its own personal stamp. There is a Rhythmica way of doing things and the group needs to have the confidence to follow its own lead. Peter Edwards’ “Solace” and “Triple Threat—The Build” and “Blind Man’s Bluff,” the latter with its echoes of old and present-day New Orleans, gave a better idea of a personal, expressive style in the process of forming. At its best, it was almost theatrical, and there was a palpable sense of excitement when the group’s excellent trumpeter, Mark Crown, or very impressive saxophonist, Goldings, came to the mike.
But it was a style in formation, which indeed it should be at this point. There was, perhaps, too great a reliance on well-trodden paths and in its writing not enough attention to thematic development, but these things will come in their own time. The progress Rhythmica has already made since its debut shows how quickly it’s getting there.
You can read this and other articles on the All About Jazz blog