Kevin Lawlor

“Eight”

(Self release)

Kevin Lawlor is an Irish drummer, composer and educator based in Co. Wexford who studied jazz in Dublin, Salzburg and New York before returning home to take up the post of Director of Jazz at County Wexford School of Music where he is also the resident drum tutor. He also helps to curate the jazz programme at Wexford Arts Centre.

In addition to his role as an educator Lawlor is also a busy performer who leads his own groups as well as collaborating with visiting international jazz musicians. One of his most fruitful alliances has been with the Welsh pianist and composer Dave Jones and it was Lawlor’s appearance on Jones’ excellent 2012 album “Resonance” that first brought his playing to my attention. Jones subsequently returned the compliment by guesting on Lawlor’s impressive leadership début “Exodus” (2013). The pair continue to perform together and Lawlor’s drumming can also be heard on Jones’ quartet recording “Live At AMG”, released in 2014.

Lawlor has always been a characterful drummer but “Exodus” also served to demonstrate his compositional skills. The new album also puts the focus on Lawlor’s writing with six original compositions augmented by one piece from the pen of Jones and a highly imaginative and inventive Lawlor arrangement of George Gershwin’s “They Can’t Take That Away from Me”.  The basic unit on the album is a trio which teams Lawlor on drums with Jones on piano and Rhodes while bass duties are shared between Andrew Csibi and Stevie Tierney. The Scottish born tenor saxophonist Konrad Wiszniewski supplements the group on five tracks and hence the overall impression is really that of a quartet recording.

The accompanying press release contains a useful ‘album overview’ from Lawlor with the drummer and composer providing comments on each individual track. Thus we learn that the title of the opening “Payne in the Back” was inspired by the Count Basie Big Band drummer Sonny Payne. Lawlor watched a televised performance of the Basie band and Payne’s showmanship inspired the Irishman to write a “catchy melody interrupted by drum fills”. The premise may sound unpromising, a little self indulgent even, but in practice it works very well with Wiszniewski on tenor and Jones on piano also making pithy, cogent solo statements. Obviously there are plenty of drums too as Lawlor asserts himself on the music, but his combination of power, precision and colour is both imaginative and effective.

“In Between” is the first of the two tracks on which Lawlor’s long term associate Stevie Tierney plays electric bass. Lawlor describes the piece as being “a tune based around a series of rhythmic stabs instead of a traditional melody” and as having “a contemporary Motown feel”. It is certainly highly rhythmic, funky even, and features Jones on electric piano. Meanwhile Wiszniewski blows dirty r’n'b style tenor above an increasingly urgent groove before handing over to Jones on convincingly vintage sounding Rhodes. The piece also includes an ebullient drum feature from Lawlor and again there’s the sense of the tune having been essentially written at the drum kit and developed from there.

The first outside item is the aforementioned arrangement of George Gershwin’s timeless composition “They Can’t Take That Away From Me”. In Lawlor’s hands this bona fide classic undergoes a dramatic transformation as the drummer re-invents it as a tango before it eventually metamorphoses into a waltz. “It felt just right as a tango to me” explains Lawlor “I rushed the main phrase on purpose to take the swagger out of the melody”. The bridge sees a change into waltz time and includes an imaginative solo from Csibi on double bass and an equally inventive contribution from Jones on piano. It’s an audacious treatment of a much loved standard that actually works very well.

Csibi moves to electric bass for the nu soul balladry of “Long Distance” which features Jones on shimmering Rhodes and Wiszniewski on breathy, tender tenor sax, the whole underscored by Lawlor’s brushed drum grooves. There’s a delightfully liquid and melodic solo from Csibi and equally enjoyable contributions from Wiszniewski and Jones. Lawlor explains the title thus; “I’m quite traditional, I prefer phone calls to stay in touch, even long distance ones”.

The isolation of the jazz musician on the road also informs “Jazz Widow Blues” which Lawlor dedicates to his fiancé, Caroline. The piece is a duet between Lawlor and Tierney on electric bass and Lawlor describes it as “the first thing I’ve ever written melodically for drums”. It consists of a twelve bar melody for drums which is played by Lawlor ‘open handed’ with the left hand playing a traditional jazz rhythm while the right hand is free to access the rest of the kit and to play the melody parts. The whole is underpinned by Tierney’s walking bass line and once again the piece is remarkably successful with Lawlor’s melodic patterns on the toms particularly engrossing.

Lawlor has worked frequently with the Canadian blues guitarist Rusty McCarthy and “Number Nine” was inspired by a tour back in 2012 which featured McCarthy making extensive use of a homoeopathic medicine called “No.9” in between regaling Lawlor with a series of colourful “on the road stories”. The tune is based around the number nine with nine beats in each measure and a 9/4 rhythmic figure for Lawlor’s drum feature. Technicalities aside it’s yet another winning composition with Wisznieski’s keening tenor sax bringing emotion and urgency to the piece as Jones provides a balancing lyricism. 

I’ve always been highly impressed by Dave Jones’ abilities as a composer and his four releases as a leader (“Impetus”, “Journeys”, Resonance” and “Live At AMG”) are all highly recommended. His tune here is “Postscript” performed with a new Lawlor trio arrangement with Csibi’s gently elastic electric bass groove underpinning Jones’ impressive pianism, at first thoughtful but subsequently more exuberant, and Lawlor’s crisp, inventive drumming which is featured prominently in the mix. Csibi’s electric bass feature also incorporates some sparkling interplay with Lawlor before the drummer goes on to enjoy something of a showcase of his own.

The album concludes with “Song for Jack Chapman”, a composition written by Lawlor on the day after the funeral of a deceased friend. It was originally scored for a string quartet and was subsequently recorded for an independent movie soundtrack. In this jazz arrangement, a version which Lawlor now prefers, the musicians retain something of the ‘chamber’ feel of the piece as the lyrical piano playing of Jones combines with Wiszniewski’s haunting tenor melodies and Lawlor’s brushed drum colourings and cymbal shimmers. The focus is very much on the suitably sombre ensemble sound and there are no solos as such.

“Eight” is a very worthy follow up to “Exodus” and presents a series of compositions that stem directly from a strong artistic vision. As Lawlor explains he had a very clear idea for each composition, including the two ‘outside’ items, and the result is an album that has a highly personalised feel to it. Lawlor’s drums play a prominent role in many of the arrangements and sometimes form the framework for individual compositions but “Eight” doesn’t feel like a ‘drummer’s album’ as such, certainly not in the ‘look at me’ Buddy Rich sense. Instead it’s an intelligent record led by a highly accomplished musician and composer with a well developed collaborative sensibility. 

http://www.kevinlawlor.com     

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