Bill Laurance Trio, Live at Ronnie Scott's, Flint

A heads up here for this Valentine's day release to prioritise your listening… with live versions of tracks drawn from Flint, Swift and Aftersun fans of Snarky Puppy pianist Bill Laurance may well bask in the familiarity here on one level of …

Published: 24 Jan 2020. Updated: 4 years.

A heads up here for this Valentine's day release to prioritise your listening… with live versions of tracks drawn from Flint, Swift and Aftersun fans of Snarky Puppy pianist Bill Laurance may well bask in the familiarity here on one level of recognition.

They may also respond to the more expansive settings and the definite warmth of the live recording sound because that is a real factor at play and adds a lot.

Recorded in 2018 at Ronnie Scott's, Laurence is with Jonathan Harvey alternating double bass and bass guitar and Marijus Aleksa on drums.

The trio is very much a deep jazz heads group, there are no gimmicks. The tunes reveal themselves slowly and Laurance's elegant way about him manages to decorate the bass lines without you even noticing.

Not really a heavily rhythmic sound there is more nuance than you realise on a first listen but it is hardly a snooze a factor that often bedevils the world of the piano trio far too much. 'The Pines' is the whopper in terms of length however the ringing 'Madeleine' scores best on repeated play and the track I am turning to most not just for its concision but in the way the overlapping lines of piano and bass intertwine and the surging polyrhythms create a rising tide of drive and ideas that reach out. A fine achievement. SG Bill Laurance, top, l-r, Jonathan Harvey and Marijus Aleksa at Ronnie's during the 2018 piano trio festival at which the upcoming Live… album was recorded.

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Ruby Turner travels on the bright side of the road

Very middle of the road gospelly-soul, the name of the game on the discreetly grooving positivity of 'Under Your Sky' from Ruby Turner here. Best known as a featured singer with Jools Holland the song is from Love Was Here (RTR) tracks of which …

Published: 24 Jan 2020. Updated: 3 years.

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Very middle of the road gospelly-soul, the name of the game on the discreetly grooving positivity of 'Under Your Sky' from Ruby Turner here. Best known as a featured singer with Jools Holland the song is from Love Was Here (RTR) tracks of which were largely written by Turner with Kat Eaton and Nick Atkinson. The core band on the album features Atkinson on guitars, Joe Glossop, keys; Jeremy Meek, bass and John Blease, drums. SG