A fairly vintage sound to be fair but certainly a more than decent debut. 'Duke's Mood' with its mournful demeanour and languorous trombone solo from Harry Maund is a candidate for best track. Matt Carter's piano statement on 'Hope Song' is sentimental and light and to which the ensemble respond meaningfully.
The version of Neal Hefti and Bobby Troup's 'Girl Talk' sung by Julie London in the mid-1960s and covered a couple of years ago by the Ulysses Owens Jr Big Band is fairly understated and is all the better for this approach and is then lit up by Harry Greene's bravura Ronnie Cuber-esque baritone saxophone solo. As so often esque is more. 'High Germany' with a melancholy solo from trumpeter George Jefford is another persuasive highlight.
Carter is from Exeter, a fairly recent graduate of the Royal Academy of Music, whose teachers at the venerable Marylebone Road institution included Nikki Iles, Tom Cawley, Gwilym Simcock and Pete Churchill. In his octet, which mercifully does not sound like a mini big band, has the aforementioned Jefford, tenorist Tom Smith, Greene - so good on 'Girl Talk' - altoist Jonny Ford, Maund (again like Jefford and Greene a stand out player) and flautist Gareth Lockrane plus double bassist Joe Lee and drummer Luke Tomlinson in the rhythm section with him. Lockrane is the best known of all the players here who certainly impressed on JTQ's spectacular Lalo Schifrin-esque romp of a mutha Man in the Hot Seat and contributes most effectively in a blend with the horns on Read Between the Lines track 'Abode'. Drummer Tomlinson was on Emma Smith's witty Meshuga Baby, a vocals highlight last year. Out on 21 July. Matt Carter, photo: Monika S. Jakubowska
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