Julian Siegel, the classically trained multi-instrumentalist who in the 00s blossomed into one of Europe’s leading jazz player-composers, plays most reed instruments and sometimes double-bass – but he approaches the tenor saxophone with a special forensic aplomb, as if pursuing something at once meticulously detailed and effortlessly natural. Siegel is often heard as co-leader of the fusion band Partisans (due for a run of UK festival gigs this summer), but he periodically makes a more traditional quartet format the vehicle for new compositions, variously designed for saxophone and assorted clarinets. He came to the Vortex with longtime piano partner Liam Noble, Oli Hayhurst on bass and Partisans’ Gene Calderazzo on drums.
A typical Siegel tenor-sax twister of crackling terseness opened the show, with timely nods to Ornette Coleman and echoes of Cool School guru Lennie Tristano in its weaving lines and sharp turns. By contrast, Harp Song, a clarinet feature with a contemporary classical undertow was steered by a pensive lyricism, and Hero to New UFO, from the 2002 album Close-Up, highlighted Siegel’s mastery of the demanding bass clarinet, with a smouldering low-register melody unfolding over a rustle of soft hits and tom-tom accents from Calderazzo, and a fast tenor-sax middle section. Noble’s bird twitters and abstract whirrs on synths prefaced an uptempo postbop feature, in which Calderazzo fired up a drum break of seamless figures and elbowing offbeats. The theme returned – and then they all stopped suddenly, as if turned to stone. Siegel and Noble’s improvising sounded increasingly seamless as the show developed – however restless the rhythmic shifts were – and the pianist’s wide jazz references added an infectious earthiness and even the odd hint of a gospel lick.
Julian Siegel occasionally looks as if he’s surprised to find himself the centre of attention, but his ability to turn demanding structures into expressive, direct music shows why he’s in the limelight.
