MUSIC

They may not be the most prolific outfit on the planet but everything the Colman Brothers have produced so far has been worth the wait. Tony Benjamin gets fraternal.

“So – would you call it jazz?” Venue asks the Colman Brothers, brandishing a copy of their eponymous debut CD album. Younger brother Andrew (trumpet) is quick to reply: “I would, yeah. Oh – hold on a minute …” He tails off momentarily, thinking it through, before ... “Yeah, I would.” Sibling Matt (trombone) is more sceptical, however. “It’s difficult because jazz means a lot of things, but essentially it’s improvisation and this isn’t.” “The record company (Wah Wah 45) call it ‘dancefloor Latin jazz’,” Andrew adds. “But I just thought it was bebop.” So that’s all clear, then.

Play the CD, however, and the truth is in there, locked in its time-warped big band sound recalling extravagantly sleazy 60s soundtracks yet punching as hard as any electronic dance beat. Cue images of black polo-necks and paisley print chiffon, beehives and Beatles suits, but stay well away from Austin Powers because this is homage, not pastiche: the Colman Brothers really love that old stuff. And they’re not alone – their debut single, 2006’s ‘El Nino’, attracted some very favourable responses, including from legendary tastemaker Gilles Petersen: “He liked it, and when he likes something lots of people end up liking it. It found its way into a great many DJ boxes after that.” Matt grins at the memory, recalling how the New York-based Greenwood Rhythm Collective even remixed the track.

Behind the big, big sound of ‘El Nino’ lay a very homemade effort (“Just us and some Latin loops, plus Ruth Hammond playing a solo. We made it in my spare bedroom,” says Andrew), yet it sounds both convincingly integrated and authentically aged, capturing the crackling energy of a time when Dizzy Gillespie might have nodded to Quincy Jones as they passed in a studio corridor. Matt pictures that scene: “You see photos of recording sessions with the whole band set out, trombonists here, trumpeters there and so on, and you can really hear it in the recordings. We wanted to catch that: our sound is very much a production sound.”

Encouraged by their successful debut, the brothers began (albeit unhurriedly) creating another track, fitting recording time in between other work: Matt had stints in Groove Armada, Incognito, Supergrass and Kasabian as well as hip instrumental dance outfits Herbaliser and Sidestepper, while Andrew’s early accolade as 1999 Young Jazz Musician of the Year led to a career working with top UK jazzers like Peter King, Jacqui Dankworth, Tina May and Richard Iles as well as his own quartet. The tango-inflected and supercool ‘She Who Dares’ eventually emerged to another warm response on the 2007 dance scene, with the brazen Latin hustle of ‘Another Brother’ hitting the decks spinning a year later. At which point the admirably patient people at Wah Wah 45 records began to hint that maybe a Colman Brothers album would be a good idea…

The jump-up in their work rate coincided with new arrivals and growing family responsibilities, but they cracked down to the task. “It helped that we know what we’re doing now, and the software’s improved over time, too,” Matt observes. “We’re musicians, really, so we’ve had to learn to do production on the side as we went along.” The undue haste (“We made four tracks in one year!” Matt recalls, disbelievingly) was at no cost to the quality of the sound, and they even took time to branch out into vocal numbers with ‘Colman Sister’ Sara (a renowned jazz vocalist herself). She wrote and sang the stylish Portuguese song ‘Sem Amor’ while all three siblings collectively composed ‘Some Other Wonder’. With superbly tasteful instrumental contributions by their musical mates from Bristol and Leeds, the album is a great credit to all involved and should ensure that the Colman Brothers move smoothly from DJ box to Ipod shuffle.

And now the Colman Brothers are planning to tour the music with a live band. “The record company’s keen – it’ll be good for profile – so we’re trying to work out how to get the sound live without paying 30-odd musicians,” Andrew explains. Matt’s experience with Herbaliser has been helpful. “Their music evolves from the records for playing live – you don’t try for the exact sound, you adapt it. We think it can work as a six-piece and we pretty much know who they’d be. They don’t, as yet, but we do!” Gig offers are already coming, including a support slot with the illustrious Quantic, providing a big incentive to get their act on the road but, as ever, Matt and Andrew Colman aren’t about to be hurried: “We’re aiming at next year, really – once we’ve got an idea of what works and what doesn’t.” It’ll be worth the wait, for sure, and in the meantime there’s the album to enjoy, though Andrew remains a bit bemused about it: “We’re very happy to have reached this level of production – but who will listen to it? After all, to us it was just like bebop.” But that’s the trick the Colman Brothers have pulled off – combining catchy, swinging dance music with real jazz flourishes – so who cares what they call it? It’s all good, whatever.

COLMAN BROTHERS’ EPONYMOUS DEBUT ALBUM IS OUT NOW. FFI: WWW.COLMANBROTHERS.CO.UK

Copyright Tony Benjamin 2011