Music / contemporary jazz
Review: Out Front, St George’s Glass Room
This was the last gig of Out Front’s UK tour and (probably depending on the mood in the tour bus) last gigs can go one of two ways. Either you get “Let’s get this done and go home!” or “It’s our last chance, let’s give it all we’ve got!”. Out Front’s gig in St George’s Glass Room definitely fell into the latter camp. It helped of course that for three of the five – trumpeter Nick Malcolm, tenor saxman Jake McMurchie and drummer Dave Smith – this was something of a home fixture, but the capacity audience equally warmly welcomed bass player Olie Brice and alto sax player Jason Yarde.
Out Front (picture: Tony Benjamin)
The project was started to celebrate the compositions of pianist Andrew Hill and trumpeter Booker Little and they opened with Hill’s Black Fire, a storming triple-time piece that gave the three horn players solo spots to set out their wares, Jake swerving and swooning around the tune, Nick wrestling it into submission and Jason squeezing and spurting it back into shape. Drums and bass roiled together while stabbing brass comments punctuated the solos and steered things towards a brash three-part finale. It was joyful music, full of energy and creativity with a gently disciplined freedom.
Out Front – Jason Yarde, Jake McMurchie, Nick Malcolm, Olie Brice (picture: Tony Benjamin)
The same energising spirit ran through Silent Grace, Nick Malcolm’s deceptively named composition clearly influenced by Hill’s multilayered approach to arrangement. Beginning with energetic bass and drums, brass incursions swept through from time to time as the driving pace fell back, took breath, then reasserted itself, full tilt. Jason Yarde’s solo was an elaborate sequence of fresh ideas, unafraid to reach screaming heights or defiant low-register rasps while Olie and Dave caught his flow and shifted with the dynamics. At times the three were a wayward trio pitched against the implacable duet of trumpet and tenor sax, but all of that finally settled into a tidy groove for Nick’s trumpet to bring to a conclusion.
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Out Front – Olie Brice, Dave Smith (picture: Tony Benjamin)
The first half closed with a well-chosen segue from Andrew Hill’s Dusk into Booker Little’s Bee Vamp. The first tune’s ballad elegance emerged from a richly thoughtful bass solo underpinned by almost melodic percussion reflecting Dave Smith’s enormous vocabulary of precision sounds. Once again expressive horn solos were balanced with moments of rich brass harmony with an emphasis on well-modulated tones to sweeten the effect. The drummer began stoking things with rushing cymbals, however, and then the trumpet announced Little’s brasher theme and launched a furious paced walking bass, a barrage of drumming and Jason Yarde hurling himself headlong into the flow. The shift of tone was remarkable in its completeness and the consistency of group playing, while the subsequent solo play reflected a seemingly endless pool of ideas.
Out Front – Jason Yarde, Jake McMurchie, Olie Brice (picture: Tony Benjamin)
Sadly a clash of dates meant that I had to miss the longer second half of the gig but the first had been a convincing display. Out Front are a well-matched group of top class musicians unified by a shared commitment to improvisatory playing with the skills to bring it all off. The project was first begun in February 2020 and had been severely disrupted both by the pandemic and also by serious health issues affecting some of the players. To see them all clearly in fine form despite all that was immensely cheering and promises very well for the future.
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