Dave Jones Quartet - new EP and UK live dates March / April 2019.
Saturday, March 16, 2019
Welsh pianist and composer Dave Jones is set to release a new quartet EP "Answers on a Postcard". His quartet will also be playing a short series of UK launch gigs in March and April 2019.
Dave Jones has forwarded the following press release;
The Dave Jones Quartet
New EP Release (on CD) - ‘Answers on a Postcard’ (cat no. DJT009)
‘Answers on a Postcard’ is the new 2019 EP follow-up to the Quartet’s critically acclaimed ‘KeyNotes’ album from 2017. It maintains the melodic and open-sounding style of that album, and again there’s space for extended improvisation, particularly from the extraordinary saxophonist/flautist Ben Waghorn. This new recording follows experimentation and fine-tuning on new material during gigs in late 2018, using a Loop on Kalimba Blues and continuing to feature virtuoso bassist Ashley John Long’s excellent vibraphone-playing to great effect. As the material was ‘played-in’ on gigs as a working band before they reached the studio, the recording has even more of a live feel to it than the previous album.
The new EP (recorded at Fieldgate Studios in Penarth, using their Fazioli grand piano) has been pressed as a limited edition vinyl-effect CD with a slightly retro and yet at the same time contemporary look, as befits the music. Jones says that the decision to go with an EP this time, rather than a conventional-length album, is largely to do with how the current-day cycle of composing and recording new music works in reality, in order to get gigs and radio plays. The ‘old’ model of e.g. a full-length album of new material about every two years, seems to result in a lull at some point in the cycle, where the gigs as a result of the current album start to run out before any new material is recorded to re-generate the cycle. In contrast, the EP approach makes it easier to release new material more often, to better serve the process of getting gigs and radio plays, which helps to maintain contact with an audience, whether live or on radio.
The first of the new EP launch gigs is on Wednesday 27th March at the ‘Flute and Tankard’ in Cardiff, quickly followed by another date at ‘Jazz@Future Inn’ in Bristol on Thursday 28th March, and also Tuesday 9th April at Brecon Jazz Club. The CD and digital album will be available online in April, soon after the Brecon gig.
Saxophonist/flautist Ben Waghorn brings to this Quartet his vast jazz experiences from a career playing for NYJO, Tommy Chase, Slowly Rolling Camera and Keith Tippett, and has also recorded/performed with bands including Goldfrapp, Kasabian and Portishead.
Bassist Ashley John Long continues to impress with his virtuosic playing, with John Law, Brandon Allen, Geoff Eales, Alan Barnes, and Scott Hamilton, amongst many others. He is also currently working on the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s young composers scheme.
Drummer Andy Hague (also a trumpeter) releases critically-acclaimed jazz albums under his own name, and has also played and recorded with Portishead, as well as being an active jazz educator. He organises the weekly Be-Bop Club in Bristol, where he often accompanies visiting artists on drums.
Pianist/composer Dave Jones has toured and recorded internationally in the US, India, France, Ireland, and the UK, and also composes music specifically for TV and film, having tracks used in ‘The Big Bang Theory’ (U.S.), the drama ‘Las Aparicio’ (Mexico), and ‘Location, Location, Location’ (UK).
Press Quotes relating to the ‘KeyNotes’ CD…
“Jones has assembled a formidable quartet” … “His own playing is unfailingly dynamic and driving, with light, shade and nuance injecting moments of poetry and reflection.” … “This studio album has the energy and excitement of a live performance.” (London Jazz News)
“The theme writing is, as you might expect from a successful film and TV composer, memorable, and the playing has a muscular, rolling intensity that puts me in mind of McCoy Tyner. The spontaneity of the improvisation has a live and thoroughly contemporary feel, with Ben Waghorn’s tenor and flute work offering a racy, rich fluidity.” (Jazzwise)
“… one of our most able and listenable pianist/composers” … “Definitely a strong session to savour” (Jazz Journal)
Quotes from the ‘KeyNotes’ CD liner notes…
“Waghorn reaches peaks of intensity that make one wonder why he continues to remain something of a best-kept secret in British jazz.” … “Listeners wary of original compositions – and with Jones they needn’t be – will find that there are enough echoes of things they already love to draw them in. The individual players also walk the line between tradition and individuality with equal success.” … “Long time Jones associate, Ashley John Long - soloing on both [bass and vibraphone) and managing to sound as if Ron Mathewson and Bobby Hutcherson have magically coalesced as one man.” (Simon Spillett)
Press Quotes from Live Reviews…
“… Dave [Jones] displayed his impressive piano skills while giving plenty of room for the rest of the band to enthral the audience with a showcase of the very best in British Jazz today.” (County Press, Isle of Wight, 2018 – following the Quartet’s gig at Newport Jazz Club, IoW)
“[Andy] Hague was excellent all evening, delivering a highly competent and supremely supportive performance from behind the kit” (The JazzMann, 2017 – following the Quartet’s ‘KeyNotes’ CD launch gig at Black Mountain Jazz Club)
Quotes from Radio programmes/presenters…
“Dave Jones on piano I think is, a terrific player…” (BBC Radio 3’s ‘Jazz Now’)
“An absolutely beautiful new album from the Dave Jones Quartet … the track you heard there is called ‘The Metro’ … that is great” (Mike Chadwick, Jazz FM’s ‘The Cutting Edge’)
The promotional video montage for the new ‘Answers on a Postcard’ EP is at https://www.facebook.com/davejonesquartet