We’re forever hearing about ‘exciting’ or ‘hot’ new bands – pioneers at the cutting-edge, outriders of the avant-garde. In the past, blazing a trail in the jazz world could often prove divisive: Miles Davis’ funk-inspired forays into fusion, notably Bitches Brew and On The Corner, were dismissed by traditionalists as a musically inbred mess, whilst avant-garde and free jazzers such as Ornette Coleman and Roland Kirk have always been considered ersatz and charlatan by some. Currently however, it seems that having a new or innovative sound is considered very much a good thing (think The Bad Plus and Polar Bear), which is just fine for new UK-based quintet Empirical.

Fresh from winning an award at the North Sea Jazz Festival (I like to imagine it takes place on an oilrig), their eponymous debut album has been picking up plaudits and awards, with contemporary jazz royalty such as Courtney Pine and Joshua Redman heralding them as the “most exciting jazz band to come out of the UK” and “incredible” respectively. No pressure, chaps.

By name by nature, Empirical are discovering their own approach to jazz, not simply regurgitating standards learned by rote. They opened with Export, written by Kit Downes (piano), which wouldn’t sound out of place on a Blue Note album of the early 60s. As the piece opened out into a sprawling, epic freeform, I was soon struck by the interaction and interplay of Kit’s piano and Shaney Forbes’ drums. During the next few songs, which segued rather confusingly into one another, Nathanial Facey (alto sax) and Jay Phelps (trumpet) established themselves as lyrical and distinctive melody men, propelled ever onward by the driving, tightly meshed rhythm section of Shaney, Kit and Tom Farmer (bass).

An example of their fresh approach came about five numbers in with their take on Tulumba, written by the late Malian guitarist Ali Farka Toure. Despite bounding off on a decidedly un-desert blues tangent, I was sufficiently moved to scribble “waves of ebullient majesty” on my pad, which is cringeworthy for me, but useful for you.

Next was a skittish, antsy number with a magical Coltrane-esque sheets of sound solo from Nathanial. As a band they flit lithely and organically between cooking grooves (jazz parlance ducky, not kitchen music) and more delicate arrangements. As with many jazz groups, Empirical do favour the odd detour into abstruse, cerebral workouts, but their brilliantly expressive soloing, which is straight from the heart, more than compensates for that.

On this point, the only qualm I can think to raise is that the more fiendishly syncopated patches of playing seemed a tad baroque, a smidge challenging at times. Combine this with the fact that their set was arguably overlong at 3 hours, and they might have trouble wooing less jazzophile audiences. But forget all that - the frenetic and freewheeling nature of the playing was truly transporting. Special mention goes to Kit Dowson and Shaney Forbes: Kit is an utterly distinctive piano virtuoso, with one solo sounding like Bach spliced with Satriani (in a good way), whilst Shaney is one of the best (and most expressive) drummers I’ve ever seen. Overall…innovative, eclectic and supremely impressive.

Empirical played at the Bonington Theatre in Arnold on 24th January 2008 as part of the Nottingham Jazz Steps programme.

Jazz Steps is run by a dedicated bunch of enthusiasts, whose mission of bringing top class jazz acts to Nottingham means that you can check out some truly impressive lineups at Arnold’s Bonington Theater and the Lakeside Arts Centre on the Nottingham Uni campus . Plus, if you’ve yet to hit 25, you can get in for only five paaaand, bargain.

All photos courtesy of Dom Henry (c)

Empirical on myspace

Jazz Steps website
 

 

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