Brandon Allen Quintet, ‘Some Kinda Mean – The Music of David ‘Fathead’ Newman’, Shrewsbury Jazz Network, The Hive Music & Media Centre, Shrewsbury, 08/02/2025.

Brandon Allen – tenor saxophone, Nick Costley-White – guitar, Hamish Balfour – keyboards, Mirko Scarcia – double bass, electric bass, Rod Youngs – drums

Born in Perth, Western Australia, saxophonist, composer and bandleader Brandon Allen relocated to London in 2000 and has since has been a regular presence on the Jazzmann web pages, both as the leader of his own projects and as a prolific sideman on the British and international jazz scenes.

With trumpeter Quentin Collins Allen co-leads the long running quartet QCBA with whom he has recorded the albums “What’s It Going To Be?” (2011) and “Beauty in Quiet Places” (2015). Both albums are reviewed elsewhere on the Jazzmann. Also featuring organist Ross Stanley and drummer Enzo Zirilli this group previously worked under the name Drugstore Cowboy and is inspired by classic Blue Note hard bop and soul jazz. They also work regularly with UK soul singer Omar Lye-Fook.

He has also co-led, with pianist Tim Lapthorn,  the BATL Quartet, a unit where the focus is firmly on the original writing of the co-leaders. This group’s 2019 album “BATL Quartet Live” is reviewed here.
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/batl-quartet-live

As a sideman Allen is probably best known for his long running tenure as a member of bassist and composer Kyle Eastwood’s band, a group that also includes Collins and British pianist Andrew McCormack.

A glance at Allen’s website reveals that he has worked with a plethora of big names across a wide variety of musical genres, including jazz, rock, pop and soul, the long list representing a tribute to his skill and versatility. He has also written music for TV and film.
https://brandonallen.co.uk/

In a jazz context I have heard his playing  in the bands of guitarists Nigel Price, Chris Allard and fellow Aussie Blake Wilner, pianist John Critchinson and drummers Dylan Howe and Clark Tracey. He has also been part of Sax Appeal, led by fellow saxophonist Derek Nash.

Allen is also an acclaimed educator, offering private tuition and master classes as well as holding a Professorship at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. He also operates an artist booking agency and has been one of the organisers of London’s Highgate Jazz & Soul Festival.

In recent times Allen has been gigging regularly with a five piece outfit that he has named The Brandon Allen Groove Band.  This is a project that sees Allen moving away from the more straight-ahead jazz and hard bop that I have previously associated him with and concentrating on a more obviously ‘fusion’ sound in a line up including electric guitar, electric keyboards and electric bass. It also puts the emphasis on his original writing and in June 2024 I saw the Groove Band give a superb performance at a sadly rather poorly attended Music Spoken Here event at The Marr’s Bar in Worcester, a show that is reviewed here;
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/brandon-allens-groove-band-music-spoken-here-the-marrs-bar-worcester-13-06-2024

Allen also leads his own jazz quartet and sextet and has collaborated with Dutch jazz musicians as part of the London / Amsterdam Connection project.

With Zirilli he was also part of the Anglo-Italian Misterioso Quartet, exploring the music of Thelonious Monk in addition to playing original compositions by its members.

A particularly important aspect of Allen’s recent career has been his themed projects paying homage to some of the more marginal figures in the pages of jazz history. There are plenty of acts around paying tribute to John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Bill Evans etc. etc. but Allen’s decision to honour some of the music’s less feted figures has proved to an inspired one and has brought the music of these comparatively unsung heroes back to the jazz public’s attention.

The figures that Allen has chosen to honour have all been saxophonists at the ‘soul jazz’ end of the musical spectrum. The first of these was Gene Ammons, followed by Stanley Turrentine. Allen has previously brought both these projects to The Hive, his quartet playing the music of Ammons in 2017 and of Turrentine in 2022. Both of these shows are reviewed elsewhere on this site, as is the recording of “The Gene Ammons Project”. The Turrentine Project also found its way onto disc but in this instance a look at the recording is incorporated into my live review.

Allen is a highly popular figure with the SJN audience having first visited The Hive in 2014 to perform with a quartet featuring pianist Steve Melling and the Midlands based rhythm section of bassist Tom Hill and drummer Miles Levin.

In addition to this and the Ammons and Turrentine shows he also visited the venue in 2019 with the BATL Quartet. Both this performance and the “BATL Quartet Live” album are reviewed elsewhere on The Jazzmann.

Allen’s popularity in this part of the world was reflected in the size of the audience turnout for tonight’s event with SJN registering their second big attendance of 2025 following the hugely successful gig by the Alison Rayner Quintet in January.

Tonight’s highly entertaining show presented the third project in his ‘tribute’ series, this time paying homage to the saxophonist, flautist, composer, arranger and bandleader David ‘Fathead’ Newman (1933-2009). Newman played music by ear and the ‘Fathead’ nickname allegedly came from an irate music teacher who was enraged by Newman’s inability to sight read. Be that as it may it certainly wasn’t something that held Newman back!

Arguably most famous for being the saxophone player and horn section leader in Ray Charles’ band Newman was a prolific session musician who variously worked with artists such as Aretha Franklin, BB King, Joe Cocker and Dr. John. He also recorded extensively with jazz flautist Herbie Mann’s band in addition to releasing close on forty albums as a leader, many of which are now out of print.

Newman also worked with another of Allen’s saxophone heroes, Stanley Turrentine, and with jazz organists Jimmy McGriff and Lonnie Smith.

Born in Dallas Newman played all varieties of saxophone but was best known as a ‘Texas Tenor’, a player with a big, burly, r’n’b influenced sound that fitted well into a variety of musical contexts, including jazz, r ‘n ‘b, blues, soul, gospel and funk. He made a number of straight ahead jazz albums before embracing the ‘soul jazz’ sounds of the 1960s and the funk and fusion of the 1970s. Allen informed us that it had been great fun trawling through Newman’s back catalogue searching for suitable tunes to bring to this project, a venture that he has dubbed “Some Kinda Mean”, the title of one of the tracks on Newman’s album “The Sound of the Wide Open Spaces”.

And it was this project’s ‘title tune’, “Some Kinda Mean” that kicked things off, with Allen and Costley-White’s unison melody lines followed by an expansive and raunchy tenor sax solo from the leader which saw him emulating Newman’s r’n’b influence ‘Texas Tenor’ sound with an impressive power, fluency and precision. Although Newman played all the members of the saxophone family, plus flute, Allen opted to specialise on tenor throughout tonight’s performance, but the music was none the poorer for that. Costley-White, a bandleader in his own right and with a new album in the offing, followed on guitar. Balfour, who also serves with Allen’s Groove Band, featured next at his Nord Stage 3 keyboard, favouring the electric piano sound that predominated for the majority of tonight’s set. Scarcia was also featured on double bass with Young’s crisp drumming a driving force behind the soloists. Allen and Costley-White then returned to reprise the ‘head’.

“Open Spaces” was a contrafact based upon the chord sequence of the jazz standard “Indiana” and was effectively the title track of the aforementioned “The Sound of the Wide Open Spaces” recording, a 1960 album that Newman recorded with fellow ‘Texas Tenor’ James Clay. This was the vehicle for high quality soloing from Costley-White, Allen and Balfour, plus an extensive ‘trading of fours’ between sax, guitar and keys with drummer Youngs, the musicians going round three times in all before returning to the ‘head’.

The first two pieces had moved along at a rapid clip but things were to get even more frenetic as the quintet romped through “Bill for Bennie”, a tune written by baritone saxophonist Hank ‘Bennie’ Crawford that appears on “Fathead”, Newman’s debut album from 1960. Crawford also plays on the record and the album is notable for a rare sideman appearance from Ray Charles, here playing piano. Tonight’s performance featured a tricky bebop style ‘head’ plus a wailing and very expansive tenor solo from Allen alongside features for Balfour and Costley-White.

After expending so much kinetic energy it came as no surprise when Allen and the band elected to turn the temperature down a notch with a version of “Lady Day”, a ballad recorded by Newman. This featured the sound of Youngs deploying brushes for the first time and the performance included a lengthy double bass solo from Scarcia that combined a strong melodic sense with great virtuosity. Balfour switched to an acoustic piano setting to deliver a lyrical keyboard solo, followed by Costley-White on guitar, his playing cool and elegant and superbly complemented by the gentle tick and the soft chime of Youngs’ cymbals. Allen topped and tailed the piece on tenor, soloing tastefully and concisely.

As we moved towards the break it was time to up the energy levels once more with Scarcia moving to the five string electric bass for Newman’s composition “The Clincher”, a tune that hinted towards the funk and fusion sounds that Newman would pursue in the 70s. Introduced by bass and drums and with Allen stating the opening theme the piece was the vehicle for solos from Costley-White on guitar and Allen on tenor,  with the leader really getting into it, crouching belligerently during the course of an expansive and high powered solo that reached deep into the tenor’s upper registers. Balfour had the unenviable task of following this at the keyboard before the always impressive Youngs rounded things off with a dynamic drum feature. A great way to conclude an excellent first half, with the audience responding enthusiastically.

Newman also recorded jazz style arrangements of popular songs and the second half commenced with an adaptation of the James Bond theme tune “Goldfinger”, famously sung by Shirley Bassey. A collective opening fanfare led into Allen’s theme statement, this followed by solos from Costley-White on guitar, Allen on tenor and Balfour at the keyboard, still adopting an electric piano sound.

Ray Charles’ gospel leanings fed into Newman’s own music and next up was a joyous rendition of the bluesy and gospelly “Ain’t That Good News”, introduced by Costley-White at the guitar and subsequently featuring the leader’s declamatory tenor sax, very much ‘the minister’ preaching to his assembled flock. I did wonder if Balfour would switch to a ‘Hammond’ setting for this one but his keyboard solo, fuelled by Scarcia’s propulsive bass lines and Youngs’ firm, deft drumming still featured his usual electric piano sound. Allen returned for some more r’n’b style sax hollering before Costley-White’s guitar solo drank deeply from the well of the blues, with the pair of them eventually combining to really tear things up at the close. Terrific stuff.

Written by the late, great Allen Toussaint the song “Freedom For The Stallion” was recorded by Newman for his 1973 album “The Weapon”, a recording that experimented with string arrangements, hence Balfour’s deployment of string synth sounds here. It was an album that saw Newman flirting with a smoother, cooler version of ‘soul jazz’ and largely featured arrangements of pop songs. In tonight’s version both Allen and Costley-White brought something of a blues sensibility to the song, the latter with an emotive, sustain heavy slow blues style guitar solo. Scarcia was also featured as a soloist with an impressive excursion on electric bass.

A speeded up Newman arrangement of “Amazing Grace” transformed the song almost beyond recognition as it became a celebration rather than the usual dirge, with jazz, rock and even funk elements playing a part. Allen’s theme statement and opening solo was followed by features for Balfour on electric piano and Costley-White on guitar, the latter’s solo on the outro introducing those blues and rock influences.

The second set concluded with Newman’s composition “Captain Buckles”, a 1971 album with an album sleeve that appears to be pastiche of the cover of the 1969 Procol Harum album “A Salty Dog”, which in turn was a pastiche of the Player’s Navy Cut cigarette packet. The “Captain Buckles” album is also the home of “The Clincher”, the Newman original that closed the first set.

Described by Allen as a “slow groover” the “Captain Buckles” performance began with Youngs and Scarcia establishing a drum and electric bass groove, this acting as the launch pad for solos from Allen on tenor, Balfour on funky keyboards and Costley-White on bluesy guitar. Allen returned to restate the theme, with Youngs and Scarcia combining for a brief bass and drum cameo right at the close.

The rapturous audience reaction ensured that no prompting was needed from SJN chairman Mike Wright and Allen quickly announced the title of the deserved encore. This was “Missy”, a Newman original sourced from “The Weapon” album, a piece that upped the funk quota even further as the quintet fairly romped through the piece with Allen on earthy tenor and Costley-White on guitar the featured soloists.

This was a terrific end to a highly entertaining and hugely enjoyable evening of music making that served Newman’s legacy well. Let’s hope that Allen is able to document this project on disc as he has done with his Ammons and Turrentine tributes.

Allen has toured widely with the “Some Kinda Mean” show and the quintet is a commendably tight and cohesive unit with the in the pocket grooves of Youngs and Scarcia helping to inspire some great soloing from Allen, Costley-White and Balfour. As evidenced by that Worcester performance with his Groove Band Allen seems to be playing better than ever, a great combination of power and fluency. The quality of his playing allied to his informative and affable presenting style makes for a good package and it’s no wonder that he is so popular with audiences.

I’ll admit to knowing precious little about Fathead Newman and his music prior to tonight’s performance, so this show was both entertaining and educational. Allen’s themed shows are a cut above the usual jazz tributes, partly due to the sheer quality of the playing but also because the material is largely unfamiliar. This helps to add to the ‘sound of surprise’ element. And of course it’s all done with a genuine love of the music of the artists that he chooses to homage. That really does shine though in both his playing and his presentation.

My thanks to Brandon for speaking with me afterwards and for clearing up a couple of set list queries. Also to Nick Costley-White, who will release his second solo album “Poncha” on February 28th 2025. I intend to take a look at this in due course. In the meantime his 2018 debut “Detour Ahead” is reviewed here.
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/nick-costley-white-detour-ahead

Tonight’s performance was a triumph for Shrewsbury Jazz Network and Mike Wright dedicated it to the memory of the recently departed Roger Goodhew, an SJN stalwart of many years standing, a former committee member and the father of Shrewsbury based jazz pianist and composer Stuart Goodhew. All at The Jazzmann send their condolences to Roger’s family and friends. Rest in Peace, Roger.

 

 

 

 

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