Alison Rayner Quintet (ARQ), Shrewsbury Jazz Network, The Hive Music & Media Centre, Shrewsbury, 11/01/2025.

Alison Rayner – acoustic & electric bass, Deirdre Cartwright – guitar, Diane McLoughlin – tenor & soprano saxes, Steve Lodder - keyboard, Buster Birch – drums, percussion

SJN’s 2025 season got off to a terrific start with a welcome return visit to The Hive by the Alison Rayner Quintet. As Rayner reminded us the band’s date at the same venue on March 14th 2020 was their last gig for a very long time, and was also The Hive’s last jazz event before the onset of lockdown.

Tonight’s show took place in altogether happier circumstances with the band celebrating their tenth anniversary year plus the impending release of a new album, the fourth in a highly productive career.  The forthcoming release follows “August” (2014), “A Magic Life” (2016) and “Short Stories” (2019), all of which have been favourably reviewed elsewhere on the Jazzmann, in addition to club and festival live appearances in London, Birmingham, Shrewsbury, Brecon and Abergavenny.

The new recording is called “Sema4”, a clever piece of word / number play that references what is effectively the title track, “Semaphore”, and the fact that this is the Quintet’s fourth album. The “Semaphore” tune title acknowledges the methods of non-verbal communication that musicians use when they play, “reacting on the fly”, as Rayner puts it. In a band that has been working together for ten years without a single line up change this is a skill that has become highly developed and the ARQ’s impressive rapport is evident throughout the “Sema4” recording, as it was at tonight’s performance in front of a pleasingly large and supportive audience on what was a very cold night. ARQ’s previous visits to SJN in 2018 and 2020 have obviously won them a loyal following, also some of those who missed out in 2020 due to Covid concerns may have been making up for lost time. In any event it was good to see so many people enjoying a truly exceptional group performance comprised of entirely original material.

Rayner described “Sema4” as being ARQ’s most democratic recording to date. McLoughlin, Lodder and Cartwright have all written pieces for the group before but their presence as composers is even more pronounced on the new album. Of the nine new original pieces only four are actually written by the leader. That’s not to imply that there is any fall off in terms of quality. McLoughlin, Lodder and Cartwright are all skilled composers and following the group’s ten years together they are all adept at writing in what has developed into a discernible ‘ARQ house style’. Typically the band’s pieces, whoever the composer might be,  are inventive, colourful and unfailingly melodic, possessed of a strong narrative and cinematic quality and are frequently informed or inspired by personal experiences, often those of loss. The instrumental configuration of the band with reeds, guitar and keyboards offers a wealth of textural opportunities and the flexible and intelligent rhythm team of Rayner and Birch provides the necessary rhythmic colour, nuance and impetus.

Tonight’s programme, spread over the course of two lengthy, value for money sets saw the band play all nine tracks from the new album, albeit in a very different running order, in addition to four choice selections from the previous album “Short Stories”.

That said the evening commenced with the opening track from the new album, the Rayner composition “Espiritu Libre”, meaning “Free Spirit”,  and a piece inspired by a road trip through the Basque Country and the Pyrenees. Introduced by Birch at the drums and featuring McLoughlin on soprano sax and the leader on electric bass this was a piece with a buoyant rhythmic groove that underpinned the melodic intertwining of sax, keyboards and guitar with Cartwright, McLoughlin and Lodder all providing concise and fluent solos. Lodder was deploying a Korg Kronos Work Station keyboard, programmed on an acoustic piano setting in this instance. It all made for a colourful and hugely invigorating start.

The quintet’s first dip into the “Short Stories” repertoire was the Rayner composition “There Is A Crack In Everything”, the title taken from a line in a Leonard Cohen song. .It is dedicated  to the memory of Rayner’s late niece Pippa Handley (1978-2018) who  “cycled all around the hills and lochs of Scotland, and the world, in an effort to find that crack of light”.
The music was less sombre than one might imagine and represented a celebration Handley’s short life. An episodic composition based around a nagging, Morse code like melodic phrase the piece was introduced by Cartwright at the guitar, subsequently joined by drums, piano, double bass and soprano sax. An unaccompanied piano passage that also included the use of live looping techniques represented something of a pause for reflection prior to McLoughlin’s soprano sax solo.

From the forthcoming album McLoughlin’s composition “Riding The Waves” was inspired by “the image of a surfer riding life’s waves, up and down, embracing change and unpredictability, never giving up”. As suggested by its writer’s observations this was another episodic piece that contrasted powerful, anthemic passages with more reflective moments, linked by the soloing of McLoughlin on tenor sax and Lodder on piano.

The first piece from the pen of Lodder was “The Handkerchief Tree”, another tune from the forthcoming album. Lodder’s composition was inspired by a particularly handsome example of ‘Davidia Involucrata’ that can be found in Abney Park, North London. Quietly ushered in by Cartwright’s guitar, with drums, electric bass, keys and tenor sax soon added this was a piece that reflected the beauty of the titular tree and included a liquidly lyrical solo from Rayner on her Wal electric bass. This was followed by a more expansive tenor sax solo from McLoughlin as the music began to gather momentum.

The first set concluded with two tunes from the “Short Stories” album. Rayner took up the compositional reins again for “A Braw Boy”, another dedication, this time for the life of Craig Handley (1994-2017). Rayner has said of Handley; “Craig spent his working life around the Scottish coast and islands. He captured the big skies, dawns, sunsets and seascapes in the beautiful photographs that he left behind”. This time the music did sound rather more like a lament as it commenced with the sound of gently rippling piano arpeggios and softly keening guitar. Wistful, folk like melodies seemed to   embody the lonely beauty of the land that Handley photographed and called home with the composer featuring on double bass and Birch on delicately brushed drums. Gently melodic and lyrical solos were tenderly despatched by McLoughlin on soprano sax, Cartwright on guitar and Lodder at the piano.

Finally we heard Cartwright’s “Life lived Wide”, another piece written in memoriam as Cartwright explained in the “Short Stories” liner notes;
“Originally a tribute to Esbjorn Svensson, I rewrote this tune for my dear friend Debbie Dickinson. Debbie was the seventh member of The Guest Stars and the second part of the song evokes some of the spirit of that group”. Readers may recall that both Rayner and Cartwright were both members of The Guest Stars, the all female group who emerged to considerable fanfare and success at the time of the 80s jazz boom, along with Loose Tubes, Jazz Warriors and others. Tonight Cartwright described Dickinson, the Guest Stars’ former manager as a “bit of a wide girl”, hence the tune title.
As Cartwright has implied this was very much a ‘tune of two halves’, ushered in by a gently lyrical guitar and double bass intro, subsequently augmented by Birch’s cymbal shimmers. The further addition of piano and sax saw McLoughlin taking up the melody on tenor, combining with Cartwright’s Metheny-ish guitar and the deep resonances of the leader’s double bass.  The second half of the tune, the “Guest Stars” part if you will, saw Birch establishing a bustling drum groove that provided the impetus for more powerful and expansive solos from McLoughlin on tenor and Lodder at the keyboard,  the latter now deploying an electric piano sound.

The second set saw the quintet focussing more exclusively on the forthcoming “Sema4” album, which will be officially released on March 7th 2025. Like ARQ’s debut “August” the new album is a live recording,  once again documented at the Vortex Jazz Club in Dalston, London, a location that is very much the quintet’s spiritual home.

Things kicked off here with “Trip Dance”, a Rayner composition simply titled because its composer felt that it sounded like “a dance with a little trip in it”. Again this was an invigorating opener with a springy, stop-start groove coaxing cogent solos from Cartwright on guitar and Lodder on piano, plus a drum feature from the excellent Birch. Another rousing opener that immediately got the audience back on side.

In the modern world the rationale behind the title of McLoughlin’s composition “Looking For A Quiet Place” is pretty self explanatory. She had played soprano on “Trip Dance” and remained on that instrument here, stating the melodic theme above a sparse but insistent rhythmic groove that became more fully developed as the tune progressed, graduating through lyrical yearning solos from Lodder on piano and Cartwright on guitar, the latter making effective use of her range of foot pedals as the music became more anthemic and increasingly rock influenced. A gentler coda saw Rayner soloing melodically on double bass.

Lodder’s composition “Hamble Horror” comes with the enigmatic album liner note “in which our hero survives a watery disaster and ultimately triumphs”. Tonight’s performance began with an extended unaccompanied piano intro that embraced an element of wilful dissonance. Double bass and drums were subsequently added, prior to the eventual introduction of intertwining guitar and tenor sax melody lines. Lodder effectively took the first solo, at first unaccompanied and then in ‘piano trio’ mode, with McLoughlin and Cartwright eventually following. Following the doomy, enigmatic solo piano intro the piece eventually concluded on an anthemic, uplifting note, the triumph that its composer describes.

Cartwright’s second contribution with the pen was “Signals From Space”, a piece from the impending album inspired by radio astronomy and the intermittent transmissions from neutron stars and distant galaxies. An unaccompanied guitar intro introduced pulsating, Morse code like melodic motifs with Cartwright again making skilled use of her range of effects. McLoughlin was featured on melodic, softly sinuous soprano sax and Lodder on flowingly lyrical piano, with the leader’s melodic double bass also prominent in the arrangement.

The “Sema4” album is dedicated to the memory of Fran Rayner, (1958-2023), Alison’s sister. The composition “All Will Be Well” was written during the two year period of Fran’s illness with Alison commenting; “this piece explores the sweetness of hope – and the pain when that is not the outcome”. Tonight she added “this piece is a bit of a journey, we’ll see you at the end”.
This proved to be a piece that passed through several distinct phases, beginning with an unaccompanied piano intro, with Lodder subsequently joined by the melodic sounds of Rayner’s double bass. McLoughlin then took up the main theme on tenor with expansive solos following from Lodder on piano and McLoughlin on tenor, these exploring a range of contrasting emotions during the course of their duration.  Finally Cartwright unleashed a spiralling guitar solo, rich in terms of inventiveness and controlled power.

It was perhaps appropriate that this tightest and most well balanced of bands should conclude their performance with “Semaphore”, Rayner’s jaunty paean to the beauty of musical communication. An extended solo double bass intro, to which Cartwright’s shimmering guitar FX were added, was eventually superseded by Birch’s urgent drum groove as McLoughlin picked up the tenor sax to enter into the kind of instrumental exchanges with Cartwright’s guitar that are implicit in the title. Of course there were soloing opportunities too, with Lodder particularly impressive at the piano.

The Shrewsbury audience had loved this performance of wholly original music from one of the best contemporary jazz groups around. There was no need for SJN chairman Mike Wright to coax the quintet into playing an encore. The audience had already made it quite clear that they wanted more and the quintet were only too happy to oblige.

For this they went back to Rayner’s composition “Croajingolong Bushwalk” from the “Short Stories” album, a tune inspired by “a bushwalk in Croajingolong, Victoria, this song is about the Australian bush, with its extraordinary birdsong, crazy wildlife, vast blue skies, orange earth and ancient people”.
With Cartwright’s guitar approximating the sound of a didgeridoo and with Rayner’s use of aboriginal percussion supplementing her double bass playing this was a richly evocative piece and a great way to round off a brilliant evening. More orthodox instrumental soloing came from McLoughlin on tenor sax and Lodder on electric piano, plus a final Birch drum feature..

Ten years and four albums in ARQ sounds as fresh and vital as ever, and although no longer exactly in the first flush of youth these musicians are making some of the best music of their careers. The presence of four talented composers in the band’s ranks is a huge bonus and of course every member is a supremely accomplished instrumentalist. What’s even more impressive is how these five individual musical personalities combine to create the unified whole that is ARQ. The band’s recorded output is uniformly high and their live performances exhibit a similar consistency. The decade long career of ARQ is something that all its members can be justifiably proud of, and they show no signs of stopping just yet, with the new album on the horizon and more live dates scheduled, including an album launch event at the Pizza Express Jazz Club in Soho, London on March 9th 2025.

My thanks to Alison and Deirdre for speaking with me at half time and after the show and for the gift of a review copy of “Sema4”,  which has proved invaluable during the course of writing this article. Also to Alison for her kind words about my work on the Jazzmann website.

The “Sema4” album is already available for sale at gigs. And look out for some great T-shirts based on the new album design. As you may have guessed I just had to buy one of those!

What a great night to kick off 2025 at The Hive!

.