Music / contemporary jazz
Review: Snazzback Album Launch, Strange Brew
Snazzback Ruins Everything, apparently, or so the title of their new Worm Discs album would have you believe. But if that were true then how come Strange Brew was rammed out with happy hepcats for the launch of the record and the start of a national tour?
Snazzback (pic: Tony Benjamin)
It’s a joke, of course, but as saxophonist Dave Sanders explained, it was also an ironic comment on how things felt during the pandemic and their realisation that “things have to fall apart to be able to get back together afresh”. The resulting album ranges across a wide spectrum of musical ideas and styles but for this gig we got a very healthy dose of the band’s classic sounds – shifting percussion-rich rhythms, tight and smooth brass lines, solid grooving bass and especially uplifting solo breaks from Sanders, trumpeter Alfie Grieve, keyboard player Will Scott-Hartley and Eli Jitsuto on guitar. There was no doubt: the Snazz was definitely back (if it had ever been away …)
is needed now More than ever
If Strange Brew has become their Bristol base it is only because Snazzback’s fanbase has outgrown the band’s spiritual home The Gallimaufry. Tribute was paid in the form of Koch Loch, named for the Galli’s James Koch who gave them the space to develop their sound over years of weekly residencies. The tune shifted through time signatures, cool trumpet and four to the floor drums giving way to drum’n’bass sub riffs under vibey electric piano and tiskering hi-hat. Dave’s lengthy sax solo had a rich seam of ideas with echoes of his namesake, the great Pharaoh Sanders. Then Eli and Will wove Neo-minimalist looping phrases over broken beat drumming in a moment of hesitation before waves of brass swept the tune to its close.
Vocalist Grove joins Snazzback on stage (pic: Tony Benjamin)
As on previous recordings and performances Ruins Everything welcomes a number of guest vocalists and for tonight rising star Grove pitched in an excellent contribution, combining their soaring singing voice with urgent delivery. They had an easy way of riding the music, chiming in and out, remixing as they went on. A Milesy trumpet and laconic electric piano threaded through In Tides with Grove’s brisk declamation fading eventually into the far distance while percussionists Myke Vince and Chris Langton took a snappy polyrhythmic break with hints of Afrobeat. By this stage there was much dancing in action.
Other tracks had moments of more conventional smoothness, almost redolent of a Quincy Jones arrangement, but always swept away into something spontaneously energetic as the beats shifted and improvised passages reshaped things. What was impressive – and it spoke of those Galli years and their busking origins – is how much they understood each other and thus whatever happened was never disruptive, merely a new collective direction making perfect sense.
Snazzback’s Alfie Grieves’ rubber chicken moment (pic: Tony Benjamin)
The album having been successfully launched the band were heading off on tour, certain to continue expanding that fanbase into bigger and bigger rooms and fields. We wished them luck but could only hope that they will always remain an active part of the Bristol scene.
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