Adam Ben Ezra: Heavy Drops (adambenezra.com)
Back in 2012 a video kept appearing on my social media. It featured a man in a hat playing double bass with a black labrador sleeping happily to the right of the screen. At the time I was taking the leap from electric bass to double bass so I was lapping up any footage of double-bass playing I could find, and this video made me sit up and question if I should just stick to electric bass because what I heard was something totally different to anything I heard people do before.
I guess the simplest way to describe the playing style of Adam Ben Ezra is as “percussive”. Somehow, he manages to play the bass while also setting a beat, be it a thumb tap to the hollow body, a finger strum across the strings or (I’m sure he’s) thumped the back of the bass for a deep thud. To say this man is pushing the limits of what the instrument can do is no exaggeration.
His latest album, Heavy Drops, features 10 tracks and I couldn’t wait to jump in. There are middle-eastern and African influences throughout (Taming The Bull is a prime example) with the bass rightly taking centre stage but well supported by rhythm and percussion. Just from hearing the opening title track you know it’s going to be amazing.
The crackers keep on coming, there are head-nodders like Play It Cool, Cosmic Nomad and Free Fly before a lovely change of pace with Portrait Of Natalie that puts me in mind of Jaco Pastorius with a thoughtful melody underpinned by moments of virtuosity. The overall feel of the album is perhaps rockier than some might want but if you’re a fan of percussion or rhythm, or maybe you want to hear something a little different, this is perfect for you. A great album.
There must be something in the water in Israel for the country to have two great bassists in Avishai Cohen and this fella, both masters of the instrument doing great things on the bass.
Matt Booth: Sun Prints (Eyes & Ears records EE-24-224)
It seems double bass players are like London buses as in you wait around for one and then two turn up. We move from one bassist to another with the debut album from American bassist and composer Matt Booth. This is more run-of-the-mill jazz but nevertheless an album that will grab you from the opening seconds. Drums, bass, trumpet, sax and keys is the line up and the style of jazz they produce is wonderful. It’s energetic, dynamic, thoughtful (by that I mean that no one takes the limelight, this is a joint effort) and, at times, it flies!
Out of all the albums I’ve heard this month, this is probably the most accessible, it should appeal to fans of jazz and newcomers to the genre. Perhaps this is where the beauty of this album lies, in the fact that it’s a nod to things that have come before but also cuts its own path without deviating from what we love about this music.
There are brass solos – lovely interplay between sax and trumpet – throughout with a busy drummer keeping the tempo but also searching for moments to add little flurries and interesting extras. The piano sounds lovely in the production and cuts through everything around it and really shines on the Brat-Pack lounge-bar tune Old News, with a lovely solo before the bass takes over on solo duties.
The bass is just right. This is a bassist that understands his job – to support the song at all costs. He gets his time in the sun but his commitment to the overall sound of the band is clear. This is a very good album and one that I know I’ll be returning to again and again. There’s an impressive nod to Miles Davis’ seminal album Bitches Brew with the track Optimal Chunks. Somewhere, a husky-voiced trumpeter is smiling down.
Elliot Galvin: The Ruin (Gearbox Records)
The new album by pianist Elliot Galvin is a tricky one to review. It feels like an audio version of a scientist’s logbook, as if someone simply tipped out a box of sounds and said “Turn this into something brilliant.” Having lived with this album for a few days, I can happily say that Galvin has.
Beneath the whirs, clicks and effects there lie 11 tracks that reveal something more each time you hear them. The sounds are varied but they act as a starting point for the foundation to the songs. From Beneath sounds as if it’s being sung by the sirens of the sea before a click comes in to announce another direction to the song. Gold Bright is based around a drum pattern with North African vibes, Stone Houses features a plucked cello (or maybe viola or violin?) and haunting vocal, Hide And Wide is a journey into the jungle or a trek among the foothills of Nepal. Everything is varied but also engaging. Each song builds, sometimes hypnotically, into something so bang up to date that it sometimes feels as if you should be listening to this music tomorrow.
Sometimes the tracks miss their target. Still Under Storms and As If By Weapons are songs that I have pressed skip on, and the album slightly loses its way with the final few tracks becoming soundscapes rather than tunes. But all in all this is one of those albums that feels like an experience rather than a bunch of songs.
