One of the biggest reunions of 2024 the Neil Cowley trio proved one of the most defining contemporary sounding UK jazz trios for 20 years in their first existence picking up a BBC Album of the Year award for Displaced, playing on the UK music TV show Later… with Jools Holland, touring widely and even recording a live Montreux Jazz Festival DVD and album. Returning this autumn with Entity after pressing pause for 7 long years, Neil explains what it's like getting the band back together again
Some time towards the end of 2023 I decided enough was enough. It was time to turn my attention to my own particular elephant in the room. We had put the ‘Neil Cowley Trio’ on hiatus some time in 2017 and at the time I had said to the guys (Rex Horan and Evan Jenkins) ‘I’m going to write and record some solo stuff, let’s hook up in a couple of years.’
I’m not going to say that the pandemic put paid to that, because that would be disingenuous. Even though, had I decided to reconvene with the guys in 2020 or 2021, it would have been something of a futile exercise. Who puts a band back together in a period of enforced isolation?! No, the truth is it took a full 7 years to get whatever it was out of my system regarding scratching the solo itch. I bought every conceivable electronic instrument in the quest for what I was looking for. Though in retrospect, I was always searching for something non-human to replace the energy of that most human of musical machines… my beloved trio.
A HOLE IN THE SOUL
Rex and Evan went about their business in that time and we remained friends, though communication was scarce. A sports related text between us once in a while was usually the icebreaker. As well as many music projects, Rex works heavily with the Irene Taylor Trust who do vital music-based rehabilitation in prisons both in the UK and in the US. Evan and his Wellington shuffle ensure he’s always playing live with the great and the good. So life went on for us all, but there remained a hole in the soul for us all I think.
KLAXON CALL
I put out the klaxon call to the guys in autumn 2023 that something was afoot and having received their nod of approval I started writing intensely at home, finally presenting 15 new pieces to them at the beginning of 2024. I’d say it took about an hour of the first rehearsal to feel the magic return and we knew that everything would be just fine. Ethan Johns (the legendary producer) had in the meantime thrown his hat into the ring to produce, engineer and mix the album which was too good an offer to turn down. We dived down to Real World Studios in Wiltshire and within a week had the whole thing finished amidst laughter and tears. The tears borne out of realising how much we’d missed the band and each other.
FEAR OF TUMBLEWEED
Up to this point the whole resurgence of the band had been a secret and we kept it that way until the release of the first single on 5 June. Obviously, there was a trepidation as to what the band's return might mean to people. There was the fear of tumbleweed of course from every insecure bone in my body. I wasn’t quite prepared for the elation and display of support from far and wide once we’d made the announcement. Without even a whiff of hyperbole, it has been overwhelming.
So how do we reconnect with our audience after 7 years? Well the core ingredient with the ‘Neil Cowley Trio’ has always been the connection between ourselves. That seems to create enough of a compelling spell to engage audiences wherever we’ve been lucky enough to travel. But I’m conscious of what other elements the audience require from us.
CONCEPTS
Despite the 7 year hiatus, we do have a 20 year band career to call upon and that will mean paying homage to it, for all those that have stuck with us on that journey. After that long period together you do of course become one half pioneer and one half museum display; whereby people want to experience the artefact element of what you do, as their memories become intertwined with your own. I consider it an honour and a pleasure to engage with that element, so there’ll be shameless playing of ‘the hits’ at our return gig in November (as part of the EFG London Jazz Festival). But also I love the process of manifesting the next step in the journey, which means more writing, recording and my favourite thing of all, more ‘concepts’. The most obvious example of this being Spacebound Apes from 2016 involving, in addition to the album, a story, a book, animation and the development of a core character (Lincoln). I can feel new stuff brewing for the coming years and already can’t wait to see where it will take me. So expect more from us. Much more.
The Neil Cowley Trio, l-r: Rex Horan, Neil Cowley, Evan Jenkins. The London Jazz Festival gig is at EartH in Dalston on 19 November
Comments