Music / Jazz
Review: Ant Law Quintet, Hen & Chicken
Ant Law is a serious musician, something he recognised ironically in a tune entitled Triviaphobia – the fear that your music might not be all that important. The tune had a definite urgent intensity, brought to the fore by Ivo Neame’s rhythmic fidelity on a piano almost hidden behind the complex scores of Law’s compositions.
But if Law did look a bit serious that merely reflected the concentration needed for his kind of dazzlingly elaborate solos, not least in the evolutionary structures of the enormous ‘Monument’, his tribute to enigmatic guitar hero Ben Monder. The piece stretched the guitarist’s fingers for impossible-seeming chords while Julian Siegel’s erupting tenor drove it into an exhilarating free meltdown that all five players seemed to revel in.
If Siegel looked a bit serious, too, then as he was standing in for regular reed player Michael Chillingworth that was understandable (and unwarranted, as he contributed mightily). There was, however, an element of less serious theatre going on behind the front line between bass player Tom Farmer and drummer James Maddren, the former’s angular animation and the latter’s spontaneous grin suggesting back row boys messing about. Nothing could have been farther from the truth, however, as the pair produced roiling textures and rhythms that sparkled throughout, whether for the dense raga-blues of Mishra Jathi or the elegant disjuncture of Asymptote.
All this music came from Law’s imminent album Zero Sum World except for Entanglement, the title track of his previous album, and the contrast between the Metheny-esque influences of that number and the fresh originality of the rest marked just how fast Law has evolved as both composer and player. Zero Sum World itself finished the gig, a great piece led off with affecting clarity by Siegel’s sax and its structure kept tight by Farmer and Maddren dutifully minding their manners while guitar and sax produced tight cascades and loose piano punctuated the flow. If jazz albums had a single this would have been it but instead it served as a triumphant end to a seriously good evening.
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