The young British saxophonist and composer Phil Meadows’ small ensemble has already revealed a personal take on New York downtown jazz and later Miles Davis – but his Engines Orchestra joins a raft of young jazz and classical musicians with the long-term objective of becoming a permanent commissioning and performance group without generic barriers. Best newcomer at the Parliamentary jazz awards, Meadows’ strings writing is lyrical and sophisticated, and smartly deployed to support and then sidestep his expressive reflections on saxes, Alice Zawadzki’s lustrous voice, edgy diversions into free-improv, and the inventive trumpet-playing of regular sidekick Laura Jurd. The rise of the title track’s melody out of deep brass hums and Elliot Galvin’s piano figures, the serpentine postbop of Intoxicated Delirium, and the melodic creativity on Prelude, Remembrance and Celebration, all amount to evidence that Meadows is going to be as significant a big-ensemble force as he has already been for small lineups.
