New UK jazz up there with some of the year's best debuts
Issued by Resonant Postcards Collective brooding and serious this debut from UK saxist Sam Norris who has written all the tunes here joins several acts this year whose work has really stood out on the UK scene among newcomers issuing their first recordings - guitarist Karim Saber for Transmission, another guitarist Jakub Klimiuk's quintet album (Un)Balanced and keys/drums/tuba/guitar band Oreglo with Not Real People being the other main contenders.
Small Things Evolved Slowly feels quite Cool school-like on one level, acoustic and pared back, quite introspective fundamentally that twists and turns bebop material into phantasms of questing 21st century speculations - if you like Lee Konitz and even Paul Motian's much later approaches in his ECM pomp in the 1970s and 80s you will probably feel quite at home.
An acoustic quartet sound
Pianist Jay Verma is significant in the sound. Tunes include 'Azazello’ which takes its name from a demon in The Master and Margarita. Bassist Will Sach here, he's fast become the most interesting bassist on the UK scene to emerge since Conor Chaplin, anchors the mordant melody lines and allows a lot of space to be carved out while drummer Harry Ling is loose and spare. And while Ling doesn't play groove proves more colouristic again in a Motian sense. As an altoist Norris, who was taught at the Royal Academy of Music by Julian Siegel, Stan Sulzmann and Kit Downes graduating a couple of years ago, likes lean lines and isn't afraid to take it timbrally ''out''.
Fresh and probing
The tunes don't grab us too much but together the effect is to paint a bigger picture and certainly the album presents as an individualistic sound that comes over as fresh and probing.
Live tracks above represent a range of album tracks - Norris, with his playing mates on the album: pianist Jay Vema, bassist Will Sach (who has been performing with Wynton Marsalis recently) and drummer Harry Ling. The album title is Satie inspired.
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