Music / Jazz
Living la Dolce Vita
It was March 6 2020 when punk-jazzers World Service Project finished recording their latest album Hiding In Plain Sight. Band leader Dave Morecroft headed back to his then temporary home in Italy little realising that his would be one of the last flights into Rome for months. “The lockdown in Italy was really early and so severe, like the world closed down” he recalls, from his apartment in Rome. “I saw out both lockdowns here and it was my longest continuous time in the country. Now I think of Rome as my home – I’m sorting out residency.”
As someone who had been very active on the Continent – Dave’s neatly named project Match & Fuse, a frequent Bristol visitor, had been a series of improvised collaborations with like-minded bands from a variety of EU countries – he has been particularly hard hit by Brexit. The solution was to relocate and after considering ‘where would be cool to be based’ he settled on Rome: “I’d already met a lot of musicians there and Italy is such a fantastic place – you can really live well.” He even included a track in Italian on the album, an increasingly impassioned rant called Sex, Lies, Lies and Lies, partly as a defiant gesture to Brexiteers, partly to reflect the new aspects of his personality living and speaking in Italian has revealed.
Dave Morecroft in relaxed mode
But he’s back in the UK in November 2021 to finally perform the album live in a gruelling week of one-night stands across the country, including the Jam Jar (Wednesday 17). It’ll be his first trip to the venue and he’s looking forward to coming back to Bristol: “We’ve always really enjoyed everything we did in Bristol. I’ve always thought that those bits around Stokes Croft kind of are the Rome of the UK. There’s a sort of undergroundy thing that’s a bit chaotic in a nice way.”
is needed now More than ever
Dave Morecroft in action
There’s a familiar mix of post-jazz ingredients in the new music, big themes wrenched out of shape over sinuous grooves and sudden prog-shifting redirections. But since recording it the band hasn’t been together in the same room for over a year and Dave is aware of how much all four members will have changed in the meantime. “Luke (Reddin Williams, drummer) used lockdown to go on an incredible journey learning sitar, oud and tabla. He’s really into ragas in 9 and 11 time. It’ll be interesting to see how that comes through.”
Whatever happens he’s seriously optimistic about getting back on the road. “World Service Project has always been a touring band, that’s the benzina (petrol) we run on so I’m really looking forward to this tour, really excited. It’s a nice choice of great venues, plus we have Roller Trio with us, and we’ll be seeing lots of old friends wherever we go. The killer for so many bands has been the loss of momentum in lockdown but now we have to restart the engine and I can’t wait to get going.”
The World Service Project play at the Jam Jar on Wednesday 17
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