While US trumpeter Josh Lawrence so far on our listening journey flickered most on our radar in a different setting stylistically - the far more anarchic Tarbaby sound - here Lawrence corresponds with the Posi-Tone house approach to which he has contributed a lot as has bassist Boris Kozlov and pianist Art Hirahara. It's often an uptempo swinging-the-bejaysus out of the tune affair in some of its most stimulating passages - the whole thing zinging along. Drum duties on And That Too are split between the great Rudy Royston and Jason Tiemann.
And That Too is quite similar to Call Time (2022) issued last year but you get a traddier wah-wah Jungle quality to a track like 'Silver's Drag' that you don't get here on the upcoming release. 'Hole in the Wall' goes on a bit too much and yet Lawrence's pure and very personal speaking-to-you tone that recalls Ryan Kysor a bit is persuasive even when things become overly relentless. The muted 'Left Hanging' is a welcome bit of balladic balm that finds Lawrence melding well with tenorist Willie Morris III who takes a fine solo here in the JD Allen mould. Seek Morris wailing brilliantly on that earlier release, Call Time.
For horn arrangements look to 'Cantus Firmus' ''the fixed song'' if you like, given a lot of metaphorical licence in the ancient musical term to relocate its meaning, is the feeling of continuum in a jazz tradition that all these players do much to luxuriate in and explore sensitively. And That Too includes a respectful version of Wayne Shorter's 'Nefertiti' introduced lovingly by Hirahara. Lawrence never sounds like Miles as a copyist at all but keeps faithful to the 1960s idiom. He and the band take you tenderly to that destination that you will want to book a return ticket to pronto. Out on 24 February
Tags: reviews