Sebastian Rochford's star has been critically ascendant for some years. A BBC Jazz Award, two Mercury Prize nominations and much music press enthusiasm have marked the quality of his work. Recordings and performances with Andy Shepherd, Herbie Hancock, Brian Eno and David Byrne are obvious cherries in his extensive CV. But maybe it’s time for the alternative end of pop and roll to get a bit of fandom going?
This fourth release with POLAR BEAR, a Jools Holland appearance this month, and an extensive UK tour through the Spring and Summer of 2010 should help provide any excuses we might need to get out and welcome his happily relaxed jazz virtuosity into all our lives. I'm definitely voting for it.
There is nothing arch or tricky about the stuff on Peepers. Rochford (drumming) leads his collaborators/friends in happy, open-hearted music with an open agenda. Leafcutter John (laptop, guitar), Tom Herbert (double bass) Mark Lockhart and Pete Wareham (tenor saxophones) provide timeless, approachable virtuosity. The tunes sound fresh, surprisingly melodic and lots of fun. The album comes through as a live session with the musicians discovering and interjecting their own enthusiasms as they play.
Press notes tell us that recording was done with deliberately restricted preparation time, to make sure that a spontaneous feel came through. And, indeed, it does sound like genuine ensemble music at the moment of creation , with a relaxed democracy of spirit running through the whole project.
The sheer joy of opening track "Happy For You" is a great way to start, By the end of it I was cheered up so much that the entry for second track "Bap Bap Bap" made me laugh out loud. Those two lugubrious saxophones have a bit of HOT 8 about them, a bit of street theatre and a whiff of dancehall. Rochford's percussion is loose and funky, Herbert's bass playing is bouncy and cheeky. The mood it carries goes madly on into the lurching "Drunken Pharaoh that follows. Rochford seems to be stumbling recklessly along to see how many of the band he can catch out or knock off track. It's great fun and nothing like a stupid as I'm making it sound.
"The Love Didn't Go Anywhere" that follows is seven minutes of something entirely different - maybe a hint of JAN GARBAREK (my jazz referents are limited) in the long lonely saxophone notes. "A New Morning Will Come" sticks with the mood and Rochford adds percussive texture that really sings. It's a gem. "Peepers" is an earworm that should probably be the theme tune for some weirdo detective series on Belgian TV. The live Jools Holland TV version was strong confirmation, with Leafcutter John's guitar adding an extra live snarl to the scintillating sax duet and Rochford's other-worldly drumming.
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Shorter tracks "Bump" and "Scream" are brief hints at whole albums of a different kind altogether. The instruments are made to sound like found sounds in riot of city noise.
"Hope Every Day Is A Happy New Years" sets off with a cheerful optimism. It's jam full of unexpected sounds, like a big polyglot city (London or New York maybe) with a marching band snaking through its streets on its late-night way home. There's a mystery ending too!
"Want To Believe Everything" is a warm, slower piece; "Finding Our Feet" has the band picking itself up after the drunken Pharaoh's rampages like Buddhist monks chanting in the dawn to Rochford's gentle percussive provocation. Its principal theme is held by the saxophones in gentle exploration of sonic spaces created digitally (I'm guessing) by Leafcutter John. Final track "All Here" sways in gently and seems to be offering thanks for a rewarding couple of days in fine musical company. At moments it could be a backing track for an Al Green song: soulful balm.
I've been playing Peepers regularly ever since I got it. And I'm still hearing new aural treats.
www://polarabearmusic.com
http://theleaflabel.com/polarbear
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