There's a hymnal sense to Richard Harrold's piano part at the beginning of 'A Beautiful Blur' that opens this latest album from Leeds 5-piece Wandering Monster the bass line from Sam Quintana who leads the band that follows allowing time for reflection. A studio album recorded in Leeds, Quintana originals are juxtaposed with covers of Jaco Pastorius and Randy Newman material. And in the Newman case the at-peace-with-itself cover of 'Cowboy,' a song of resignation that revolves around the idea of ''Too late to fight now, too tired to try,'' underlines the thoughtfulness and balm the band are so adept at generating. Often Leeds new generation jazz bands have a punkish more anarchic aspect to their style not Wandering Monster on this showing although they do become edgier in the open play of 'What We Talked About' steered by drummer Tom Higham - this new often anthemic album arrives four years on from their self titled Wandering Monster. The Zenna title track with its pristine guitar from Calvin Travers is reminiscent of the approach of Tom Ollendorff in the way Ollendorff sallies forth with Ben Wendel on Open House certainly when the tenor sax playing of Ben Powling takes up the momentum.
Out on 28 July. Wandering Monster, photo: Sophie Jouvenaar. 'Zenna' is streaming
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