This Anglo-American supergroup could be seen as a canny way of raising the international profile of two of Britain’s most inventive jazz musicians.
These gentlemen first assembled in 2009, with pianist Gwilym Simcock and guitarist Mike Walker backed by flashy US drummer Adam Nussbaum and veteran bass legend Steve Swallow. The latter has now been replaced by another American, Steve Rodby, and the lineup has been expanded to feature Iain Dixon, who multitasks on reeds and synth. But the focus remains on the guitar/piano pairing of Simcock and Walker.
The two write most of the material, which often suffers from the curse of so much contemporary jazz in that it is overwritten, packed with tricksy chord changes and byzantine, unnavigable melodies. Where this is sometimes a problem on record, it becomes less of an issue tonight, as so many songs become vehicles for melodic and textural improvisation.
Walker’s guitar is the real wild card. It Could Have Been a Simple Goodbye sounds like a compendium of Steely Dan licks; Dog Time features atonal skronks and muted chicken-scratch funk playing; Clockmaker invokes the spirit of John McLaughlin on In a Silent Way. On another new track, You Won’t Be Around to See It, Walker sounds like he’s learning his instrument over the course of the song, moving from rudimentary one-note riffs to complex Pat Metheny-isms.
Throughout, the extemporary passages – be it Simcock’s workout on Barber Blues, or Dixon’s soprano sax shredding on Speak to Me of Home – are far more interesting than the rather stilted writing. What might seem impossible for these gentlemen on manuscript paper becomes distinctly possible live.
