Steve Banks, Emboldened, Stoney Lane ***1/2

If you subscribe to the theory that there has been a shift more towards progressively swinging modern mainstream jazz in recent years, in Canada and the States issued by labels such as Cellar Live, Smoke Sessions and Posi-Tone, in the UK less …

Published: 16 May 2023. Updated: 10 months.

If you subscribe to the theory that there has been a shift more towards progressively swinging modern mainstream jazz in recent years, in Canada and the States issued by labels such as Cellar Live, Smoke Sessions and Posi-Tone, in the UK less obviously so but often to be found on labels like Jellymould Jazz, Whirlwind and here Birmingham's Stoney Lane, then relative newcomer guitarist Steve Banks with his quintet fits right in.

What that means in practice involves a twist. And while this UK band recording in a Birmingham studio can sound quite American idiomatically the tenor saxophone, guitar, piano, bass, drums combo develops a bittersweet pathos sometimes that reveals its local character.

Pianist Rebecca Nash - reviewed live on marlbank last month during an appearance with singer Sara Colman, bassist Henrik Jensen and saxist Trish Clowes - plays a big role in clearly marshalling the rhythm section centred sometimes on guitar sometimes on piano while the ever nimble and agile guitarist Banks does not shy away from exploring in depth the themes shaped by his 'Emboldened Suite.'

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Henrik Jensen, l-r, Sam Crockatt, Steve Banks, Rebecca Nash, Mark Whitlam. Photo: via Dynamic

Nash with her lead notes on 'Fear' opens up the harmonies and adds another layer enhanced by the bass so deliciously by Jensen. If you call something a suite it sounds like classical terminology. But there isn't any classical crossover here at all. In the main theme of 'Unity' drummer Mark Whitlam - known for his work with Michelson Morley - hustles the band alone and as so often the bluesy sax of Sam Crockatt does a lot of the main lifting. Crockatt can sound like Mark Lockheart at times (no bad tendency, that) and digs deep into chorus upon chorus of variations on the theme set up by the confines of the tune in question. The final piece is like a rewrite of a couple of pieces you'd hear on an album like Secret Story from the 1990s. A strong group effort Emboldened is out on Friday. Album track 'Unity' is streaming

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Robin Verheyen, Playing the Room, WERF Records ***1/2

Saxophonist Robin Verheyen becomes a priestly presence dispensing musical absolution at every turn here in his weighty soliloquising. He is best known in these pages for his tenure in fiery Belgian band TaxiWars. But he is just as likely to knuckle …

Published: 16 May 2023. Updated: 10 months.

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Saxophonist Robin Verheyen becomes a priestly presence dispensing musical absolution at every turn here in his weighty soliloquising. He is best known in these pages for his tenure in fiery Belgian band TaxiWars. But he is just as likely to knuckle down in other contexts to tackle the baroque.

Verheyen recorded solo soprano explorations Playing the Room in two situations: the first an empty church; the second in front of an audience in a concert hall. Both locations were in Bruges. The timbre and idiom you find on a Lol Coxhill recording say on a track such as 'One to Three' on 1972's Toverbal Sweet… Plus springs to mind. And certainly this all connects with a free improv kind of sound swirl and adventures in new language that emerged in a range of places dotted around Europe notably such as in the Little Theatre Club in the London of the late-1960s and early-70s. Verheyen does become a little over-flowery on 'Walburga' but mostly it's eminently listenable, fairly serene and not-at-all complacent or laboriously indulgent. Final word 'Freight Train' forgive the hyperbole is everywhere this year after Sachal led the way on last year's Still Life with the song's revival. And Verheyen comes up with a novel interpretation neither skiffle-invoking nor a shrine to the sanctuary of balladry. It is as valid and not at all obscurantist for the sake of it as any recently.

Robin Verheyen, press