MUSIC

Bebop Club, Bristol (Fri 6 Jan)

Given the styereotype of the lazy, time-wasting student, it seems nothing short of miraculous that someone doing a German degree can also find time to flower into one of the most impressive new saxophone talents on the Bristol jazz scene. ASQ (the Arabella Sprot Quartet) was making bigger and bigger waves around these parts until Ms Sprot’s studies took her to Austria for a year. Needless to say, she wasted no time getting a new band together and making a CD of her original tunes while studying out there and, since returning last autumn, she’s pulled another impressive foursome together in time for this return to the Bebop Club. The frontline pairing with Mark Lawrence’s free-ranging guitar is well-matched as Ms Sprot has an equally discursive style, building long solos like thought processes, elaborating systematically from melodic simplicity to impressive bop intensity. Her tunes, naturally, lend themselves to this process while Lawrence’s compositions have a rockier riff foundation that favours his contemporary fusioneering. Bass-player Will Harris – almost a fixture in the Bebop these days – is set free in this context, providing a more individual and evolving contribution in response to John Randall’s eye-catching drumming. Randall (who leads his own impressive quintet up in London) is a revelation, with superb control of dynamics and a restless energy that he keeps somehow focused on reframing the music. The collective approach seems to suit all four players, allowing each to contribute their own sound world and leaving the listener to entangle or disentangle the music. The set ranges wide, too – Kenny Wheeler’s ‘Everybody’s Song But My Own’ is a casebook study in lyrical contemporary jazz; Frank Zappa’s ‘Little Umbrellas’ reconstructs jauntily; Lawrence’s ‘Dear John’ has an appropriately regretful tone and a close-fitting arrangement; Sprot’s solo introduction to her ‘I Can’t Love You’ moves from caution to defiance and sets the tone for a fine group effort. Sprot announces a closing ‘Seven Steps To Heaven’ with “The set’s a bit light on swing”, and then delivers a measured version that only bursts into swingbeat for the chorus – entirely in keeping with an evening of classy groove-free jazz from a very promising contemporary band. (Tony Benjamin)

Copyright Tony Benjamin 2012