Elliot Galvin Trio, Dempsey’s, Cardiff, 08/09/2015.

There’s currently something of a buzz about the prodigiously gifted young pianist and composer Elliot Galvin who is currently touring the UK with his trio in support of his début album “Dreamland”.

Galvin, originally from Rochester in Kent, is a graduate of the Jazz Course at London’s Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance and is a frequent award winner, a former Yamaha Jazz Scholar and the 2014 European Young Jazz Musician of The Year. Together with trumpeter Laura Jurd he is the co-founder of the increasingly influential Chaos Collective of young musicians. Indeed “Dreamland”, with its brilliant and amusing artwork by Stuart Brough, appears on the Chaos Collective’s own label. I’d imagined that it was a brand new release timed to coincide with the current tour but in reality it first appeared in early 2014, somehow managing to slip beneath my radar - until now.

Prior to this evening I’d seen Galvin perform live on two previous occasions, firstly with guitarist Dan Messore and later with saxophonist Phil Meadows. Both of these were London Jazz Festival events with Galvin’s contributions to the Meadows group being particularly impressive.

However neither of these two previous appearances could quite prepare me for the musical fireworks that Galvin and his talented young colleagues Tom McCredie (double bass) and Simon Roth (drums) unleashed this evening. This was even after I’d been given something of an inkling of what to expect thanks to a chance conversation with Galvin’s aunt, a volunteer steward at the 2015 Three Choirs Festival in Hereford.

Galvin is a pianist with technique to burn but he’s also a self confessed nerd and gadget fanatic and his performance saw him augmenting the orthodox sound of the piano with a dizzying array of devices and extended techniques. He approaches his music with an impish irreverence that has caused other commentators to liken him to a young Django Bates, and it’s a fair comparison, Galvin really is that good. Like Bates he has ideas to burn and his music is similarly busy, full of sudden shifts and turns and dramatic dynamic contrasts. The restless and often whimsical nature of his music might not suit all listeners but I loved it for its youthful brashness and energy, the sheer joy the trio took in one another’s playing and Galvin’s obvious reluctance to be pigeon holed. This was a three piece that went way beyond the usual conventions of the piano trio, whether pre or post E.S.T., to deliver music that was gloriously original, occasionally challenging, but above all fun.

Galvin and his colleagues kicked off with the album track simply titled “Blues”. Needless this was the blues as you’ve never heard them before with Galvin swiftly abandoning the initial blues structure to inject a jarring but wilful dissonance as drummer Roth supplemented the sound of his kit with an array of toys and small percussive devices. Meanwhile Galvin rummaged under the lid as the music underwent a further series of busy, dynamic changes. He’s a musician who likes to deploy the piano as a ‘whole’ instrument and these excursions into the innards were to be a regular feature of the evening with prepared piano techniques later being used extensively.

“Ism” saw Galvin utilising the sounds of a toy piano, this augmented by Roth’s complementary use of unorthodox percussive devices. Playing both toy and conventional pianos simultaneously Galvin combined with Roth to create a series of interlocking rhythmic patterns which formed the back drop for McCredie’s fine arco work, indeed the young bassist’s brilliant use of the bow was yet another distinctive factor in this evening of relentlessly inventive music making.

The new tune “Blop” found Galvin making use of both an ancient stylophone and his own self made “microtonal melodica”, in reality two melodica keyboards, one in its normal tuning but the other one having been opened by Galvin who then filed down each of the metal reeds inside to detune each by a microtone. Galvin described the process as “a nerdy night of instrument building”  but the results were well worthwhile on a solo that reminded me of Django Bates’ weird and wonderful synthesiser outings with both Loose Tubes and Human Chain.

Galvin then confounded us by playing a standard as he reclaimed Kurt Weill’s “Mack The Knife” from the supper club crooners and recast it in its rightful dark setting, Roth eventually picking out the familiar melody on a child’s glockenspiel above a brooding, lugubrious piano vamp which eventually sowed the seeds for a typically fidgety Galvin solo.

“Tippu’s Tiger” was named after an exhibit in the V & A Museum, an Indian musical box with a distinctly anti-colonial theme, exactly the kind of off the wall thing to inspire an eclectic like Galvin. Here he played a kalimba or thumb piano, sometimes simultaneously with the grand piano, with Roth adding glockenspiel and shakers as the trio evoked that other worldly musical box sound. Galvin also deployed prepared piano techniques and it was left to McCredie to ground the music with an impressive pizzicato bass solo.

“Hurdy Gurdy” began with a series of hypnotic, interlocking grooves featuring piano, arco bass and skittering brushed drums before an animated series of piano and drum exchanges led to a second outing for the microtonal melodica as Galvin approximated the sound of the instrument in the title.

Finally the trio returned to the album repertoire to end the first set with “Azaro” which featured Galvin launching various items into the lid of the piano to create an unprepared prepared piano sound. Not since Keith Tippett have I seen somebody fill the body of a piano with so much ‘stuff’. With McCredie and Roth fully complicit in the mischief making the trio created a series of staccato, Morse code like interlocking rhythms which culminated in an energetic climax that clearly delighted both band and audience. An abiding memory of this concert is the almost constant grin on Galvin’s face as he delighted in his own audacity.

Set two saw no slackening in pace as the trio continued to push the musical and conceptual envelope.  The rumbustious “JJ” took simultaneous inspiration from the works of German philosopher JJ Winkel and the 1980s disco scene, something that Galvin and his colleagues are surely too young to have experienced first hand.

“1666” was more reflective but still found Galvin reaching under the lid and Roth deploying various unorthodox percussive devices as McCredie again acted as an anchoring figure at the bass.

Among Galvin’s piano tutors at Trinity was Liam Noble and as tunes like “Polare” demonstrated that the younger man has clearly absorbed something of Noble’s often highly percussive approach to the piano plus something of his intelligence independence of spirit.

“A Major” began with the twinkling sounds of a wind-up musical box allied to muffled drums and arco bass before McCredie eventually put down the bow to solo pizzicato above a piano vamp featuring the sounds of dampened strings. Galvin subsequently delivered a more orthodox piano solo before again handing over to McCredie who again flourished the bow for a richly melodic arco solo that momentarily reminded me of Dan Berglund’s work with E.S.T.

From the album “Lulu” was a stunning tour de force for solo piano that was loosely based around the old music hall hit “Lulu’s Back In Town”. With its chunky, wilful dissonances and vaulting octave leaps this was a display of virtuosity that came with a big, semi-ironic grin on its face.

“Punch And Judy” began with Galvin manipulating a vintage cassette recorder (hey, I’ve still got one of those!) in a kind of real time sampling exercise - that’s the way to do it! Eventually he handed the tape machine over to Roth before embarking on a rollicking solo that managed to find room for a quote from “Get Happy”.

The album title “Dreamland” is a reference to the famous but now defunct amusement park in Margate that was an integral part of Galvin’s childhood. He recently took part in a multi-media event at Margate’s Turner Contemporary Gallery which saw artists from various disciplines presenting their memories of the much loved institution which was destroyed in a fire in 2008. From that project came the closing tune “Cozy” which saw Galvin encouraging an element of audience participation as he taught us to whistle a simple, recurring melodic phrase as part of a piece that summoned up childhood memories and naivete, a charming sepia print of the English seaside. Galvin, McCredie and Roth whistled some and played some rather more complicated melodies and Galvin delivered a pounding piano solo that was reminiscent of Neil Cowley in overdrive and almost tipped over into full on, straight ahead boogie woogie. Great fun and a wonderful way to complete an evening of adventurous, imaginative and highly colourful music making. For all the complexities and avant garde elements this was still accessible and eminently enjoyable music and the technical skill exhibited by all three members of the group was consistently dazzling.

Perhaps the evening was best exemplified by the well deserved encore. The album version of “Periodical Cicada” lasts for all of sixteen seconds. Tonight’s rendition may have been even shorter, it was certainly the briefest encore I’ve ever heard and summed up Galvin’s eclecticism perfectly. 

I was very impressed with Elliot Galvin and predict a bright future for this supremely talented young musician and composer. His technical gifts are prodigious and he’s full of the enthusiasm of youth and has an enquiring mind and some great ideas. Wilfully left field he’s the kind of artist who is likely to attract a cult following.

I’m grateful to Elliot for chatting with me at half time and after the gig and for providing me with a copy of “Dreamland” which I’m pleased to confirm sounds just as good in the home listening environment.

As I’ve said the sheer busy-ness of his music may not be to everyone’s taste and his use of toys, electronics and other devices may also deter some listeners but allegations of novelty were levelled at Django Bates in his younger days and he hasn’t done so badly for himself has he? I predict similarly great things ahead for the clever young Mr. Galvin. 

The trio are due to record a second album shortly but in the meantime the “Dreamland” tour continues with the remaining dates listed below; 

11 Sept - Colston Hall Foyer, Bristol
12 Sept - Zeffirelli’s, Ambleside
13 Sept - Seven Arts, Leeds
15 Sept - Edinburgh House Concert, Edinburgh (contact trio for details)
16 Sept - The Butterfly and Pig, Glasgow
17 Sept - The Blue Lamp, Aberdeen
18 Sept - Literary and Philoso??phical Society, Newcastle ?

? The Elliot Galvin Trio UK tour has received support from The PRS for Music Foundation.

COMMENTS:

From Roger Warburton via Facebook;

Enjoyed every minute of this gig. The eloquent write up says it all.

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