The British multi-instrumentalist Tony Woods has made only four albums in 20 years with his folk jazz Project band, but they all fuse the communality of song with an upbeat, jazzy urgency. Moreover, Woods can shift gear between jigs and reels, free funk, Balkan dances and ambient electronics without sounding undecided, as can his long-time partners, including double bassist Andy Hamill and guitarist Mike Outram. Woods’s folk roots are immediately declared in the skipping, pitch-sliding soprano sax melody of Queen Takes Knight, but the jazz connections are also plain in Rob Millett’s glowing, Gary Burton-esque vibraphone sound, and in Outram’s restrained, sporadically wailing chord work. Some tracks teem with funky melodic chases between instruments, some are mournful and mysterious (such as the Bonfire Carol, the only traditional song); Metamorphic is a world-music marimba groove with a penny whistle theme; Pantagruel is a Celtic hop; Firelight is a lovely wood flute ballad set against Hamill’s harmonics and purring chords. It’s understatedly emotional and warmly personal music.
