Big Air

The Vortex, London

02/05/2011

Big Air made this all-too-rare London appearance off the back of their Cheltenham Jazz Festival set of the night before. A Trans-Atlantic affair, the group feature a British brass/reeds section - Chris Batchelor (trumpet) and Steve Buckley (saxophones and bass clarinet) and Oren Marshall (tuba) - complemented by the American duo of Myra Melford (piano) and Jim Black (drums). Batchelor and Buckley are joint bandleaders, and between them they contribute all of the compositions, many of which are new and - as yet - unrecorded. The first set, though, favoured tunes from their multi-award-winning début album, BBC Jazz on 3’s ?best album for 2008’ no less. (Unfortunately I could not stay for the second set.)

They began with “All Good Things”, a jaunty affair with hints of both Mexican brass and circus parade music, with Buckley on bass clarinet proving a marvellous complement to Marshall’s tuba. The tune became more disjointed during an exchange between Myra Melford and Chris Batchelor, only for Jim Black to work his particular magic, channelling and shaping their implicit rhythms into something more tangible, pushing right through swing time into something closer to a rock pulse before a collective reprise of the composition’s main themes. Melford and Batchelor were again the featured soloists for “The Wizard”, with the unconventional tuba/drums rhythm section in striking counterpoint. A terrific saxophone solo then inspired the band to a quite awesome workout, stoked by Black’s drumming but hinging on the brilliant soloing of Melford. The pianist’s blending of dexterity with physicality, of grace with dynamism, carries her unique personal stamp. The influence of Cecil Taylor is often cited, but in Melford the percussive complexity they both demonstrate at times is modulated by a distinctive poise and lyricism.

The first new number of the night is a brief piece with a subtly Caribbean feel, the band seeming less comfortable with this particular blend of inputs. They returned to their established repertoire with “The Road, The Sky, The Moon”. Melford and Batchelor got things under way once again, at first rather awkwardly but soon blending beautifully. Buckley, back on bass clarinet, joined them to explore the pensive main theme. Each of the three pieces from the début album were written by Buckley but feature notable solo space for Batchelor, which serves to underline the solid partnership that they have maintained since their late ?80s days in Loose Tubes. Clear echoes of the Loose Tubes sound are reinforced by the presence here of Oren Marshall’s tuba. Melford and Black, contrastingly, lend the Big Air sound dual hits of American roots, soul, and funk. Henry Threadgill’s trio Air were not an explicit influence (I asked), but comparisons with later Threadgill ensembles are unavoidable, and not just because Melford played in some of them or because Threadgill also liked to deploy the tuba in the bass role. The music of both Big Air and Threadgill in his post-Air ensembles alike blends informal polyrhythm, free-jazz virtuosity, a touch of funk, the soulful inflections of folk music, and a distinctive wry humour.

Even as Batchelor’s soloing dominated the early stages of “The Road?”, the track’s mood was shaped by Marshall’s tuba. The subsequent tuba/piano/drums trio passage led naturally to a solo for Marshall mostly played in the instrument’s upper registers, which was beautifully phrased. Black added dramatic accompaniment to the solo until Buckley’s bass clarinet joined to open things up, melding beautifully with the tuba, taking the group back to the main theme. The set then concluded with another new composition, this one being named for those kite-flying creations of Dr. Seuss, “Thing One and Thing Two”. Swing-era jaunty, this piece (much more successful on this hearing than the earlier new tune) has a brassy, perky theme which, as with “All Good Things”, breaks down for a dialogue between piano and, this time around, tuba. A loose, cartoonish sequence of segues make for a lively and exciting sequence of interludes with some wonderful interplay between trumpet and saxophone, before tuba and drums unite to propel the piece to an exuberant climax.

COMMENT

Ian’s review of Big Air’s appearance at Cheltenham Jazz Festival the previous evening can be found in our “Sunday at Cheltenham Jazz Festival 2011” feature.

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