Music / Jazz
Review: The Enemy, Hen & Chicken
At the end of proceedings Jazzata promoter Ian Storror declared The Enemy’s gig to have been one of the best trio experiences he’d had for a long time, pianist Kit Downes asserted that the venue was his favourite place to play in Bristol and the 70 or so audience members generally whooped and hollered their approval of things. It was a well justified love-in, reflecting the way that Ian has built up a solid audience for contemporary jazz without sacrificing his own high standards of musical quality or relaxing his long-established rules that guaranteed a quietly attentive crowd for this evening of complex and intelligent contemporary jazz. No mean feat in these cash-strapped times.
On paper The Enemy seems to have everything going for it, being three exceptional players with a flair for improvisation and originality. Comparisons with the highly successful Phronesis are probably inevitable, especially given the coincidence of Scandinavian bass players (The Enemy’s Petter Eldh is Swedish), and there were moments of unhinged energy that did indeed sound similar, but this band quickly established a very clear identity of its own.
Race The Sun was typical: a collective improvisation rich with internal structures, an initial jumpiness giving way to an emerging metal-heavy theme that, once established, was then swept away with a whimsical little pay-off. The tune, like many of The Enemy’s pieces, seemed to be based on a challenge: how to move from one musical idea to the next (and the next …) through improvised changes while remaining integrated as a sound. This resulted in a seat-of-the-pants tension with some thrills and only a few spills. Children With Torches was most spectacular, with drummer James Maddren delivering unbelievably complex cross-rhythms as Downes hands spread further and further across the keyboard and the bass flowered from hasty walking to reckless hurtling, Eldh wrapped around his instrument like a wrestler determined to win.
But, despite frenetic tracks like Faster Than Light, it wasn’t just about the fireworks and one track (called, I think, Fogorhythmic?) subtly teased a soulful ballad melody from an intricate interplay between bass and piano, the theme glimpsed and hinted and only at the end given a pretty straight ahead hearing. It was a nice touch, one among many in an evening that gave all three musicians the chance to shine. Kit Downes has already established a couple of other excellent trios, including the prog-fuelled Troyka, but The Enemy could well eclipse even those.
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