Technique, knowledge and an abundance of ideas are key attributes for any composer, but knowing when to take a back seat while improvisers launch detours is also a jazz essential. Sean Foran, the gifted Brisbane-based pianist, packs his work with pretty hooks, tightly wound polyphonies, and jump-cut rhythm changes, but he understands how to let imaginative soloists breathe. An accomplished British group including Manchester guitarist Stuart McCallum is on tour, mostly playing music from Foran’s new album, Frame of Reference.
Foran’s UK calling card has been his composing and commanding piano touch with the edgy Australian trio Trichotomy, but this music is a distinctly calmer alternative. His classy partners astutely tuned into that early in the show as sophisticated drummer Joost Hendrickx sidled into a characteristically enticing piano ostinato with intensifying snare-drum showers. James Mainwaring introduced the romantic sax theme, and guitarist McCallum’s dark murmurs built to upper-register peals. A Fine Balance began as a shy soprano sax ballad but sidetracked to a busier groove, eventually driven hard by McCallum’s urgent strumming. On his own serene folk-ballad, As the Trees Waltz, the guitarist played a delectable, distantly Bill Frisellian duet with Foran, and Quiet Times was a textural ensemble interplay over a steady bass heartbeat. Frame of Reference was typical of the leader in its foxily modulating piano loop, abrupt thematic and rhythmic acceleration, muscular sax break, and unheralded dead halt.
It may be chamber jazz, but it’s a full-blooded and melodically memorable kind.
• Sean Foran’s quintet play Lakeside, Nottingham, on 5 October. Box office: 0115-846 7777. Then touring until 11 October.
