Empirical, Midland Arts Centre, Cannon Hill Park, Birmingham, 18/02/2012.

The young British jazz band Empirical created quite a stir with the release of their eponymous début album back in 2007. This first incarnation of the group included alto saxophonist Nathaniel Facey, trumpeter Jay Phelps, pianist Kit Downes, bassist Neil Charles and drummer Shane Forbes. Charles left shortly after the release of the album and Downes and Phelps also subsequently departed to pursue successful solo careers, particularly so in Downes’ case. The first album acquired considerable critical acclaim and the awards that go with it but there was always the sense that the original Empirical was a collection of individuals with too much collective talent for a single band to hold.

Founder members Forbes and Facey regrouped with a very different line up and approach. Charles was replaced by bassist Tom Farmer with vibes wunderkind Lewis Wright rounding out the new four piece Empirical. Wright had previously come to public attention via a stint with drummer Clark Tracey’s band. Tracey’s groups have also included pianists Kit Downes and Zoe Rahman and have acted as a kind of “British Jazz Messengers”  in their hothousing of young UK jazz talent.

With Wright in the group the new Empirical set about exploring the musical legacy of the Late, great Eric Dolphy, particularly his seminal 1964 Blue Note album “Out To Lunch!” which featured Bobby Hutcherson on vibes. Empirical’s second album “Out ‘n’ In” (2009) included their versions of two of the tunes from “Out To Lunch!” plus a number of band original in the same vein. The album was both a critical and commercial success as jazz commentators kept faith with the band and the group won a prestigious MOBO award for Best Jazz Act in 2010.   

Empirical’s third album, “Elements Of Truth” (2011) is their strongest offering yet, combining the descriptive, episodic writing of their first album with the Dolphy inspired complexities of the second. It is less obviously a “tribute” record than its predecessor and and focusses solely on the group members’ own writing with Farmer emerging as a particularly important compositional voice. Dolphy remains an important influence but there is an organic, closely knit feel about Empirical’s new music that can only come from being a regular working group. “Elements Of Truth” is the sound of a band reaching full maturity and proof of this artistic growth was embodied in tonight’s excellent concert at Birmingham’s newly refurbished MAC Theatre, one of my favourite Midland venues.

Early on in their career Empirical established a very strong visual image with their multi racial line up and razor sharp threads. Tonight they were as immaculately groomed as ever, with Forbes and Facey looking particularly dapper, and as ever the announcements were shared between all four members of the group, a very public statement on the democratic nature of the band. All four were set up very closely together, in the manner of a chamber music group, and indeed there was a chamber quality about the music in the way that all four instruments could be heard equally and often simultaneously with no one player overly dominating. The term “chamber jazz” is sometimes used pejoratively with regard to music that is overly prettified but there’s a complexity and rigour to Empirical’s music that completely undermines that description/accusation.

Despite the complexity of their arrangements Empirical’s music is still strongly rooted in improvisation. Tonight’s concert sounded very different to the records, in part because pianist George Fogel, who guested on the last two albums was missing. At first I was rather disappointed by this as Fogel had become an integral part of “Elements Of Truth” and advance publicity had suggested that he would be making the tour. However as we were to find out the tour to date had been very different to what had originally been envisaged. An injury to Facey, sustained playing football meant that he had missed the first five dates of the tour and his place had been taken by guest artists including pianist Robert Mitchell and saxophonist Julian Siegel (who had guested on bass clarinet on “Out ‘n’ In”. Tonight was the first time the core quartet had performed together for quite some time.

They commenced a little tentatively with “Out But In”, Farmer’s Dolphy inspired piece from the group’s second album. At first the sound of Wright’s vibes was a little indistinct but after the opening number some judicious adjustments at the mixing desk ensured that the sound improved considerably with parity between the instruments being achieved and maintained. Using four mallets, a method pioneered by Gary Burton but now used by virtually all contemporary vibists, Wright adopted a mellow, marimba like tone for his solo with other significant solo contributions coming from Facey on alto and Farmer at the bass. 

The bulk of tonight’s material was drawn from the latest album including Facey’s “Yin and Yang”, a piece with two distinct moods and lines running through it. Very different from the recorded version the piece began with a stunning solo hand drumming introduction from Forbes which incorporated both melody and rhythm and was far removed from the usual clatter of the by rote drum solo. Here Forbes playing ranged from the deliciously delicate to the powerfully polyrhythmic as he picked up his sticks, but most importantly of all it was innately musical. Facey’s incisive alto solo contrasted well with the shimmer of Wright’s vibes before the saxophonist dropped out to make way for a fragile vibes/bass duet later embellished by Forbes’ sympathetic cymbal work.

Farmer’s “Simple Things” initially lived up to it’s name with its memorable, almost child like melody later giving way to more complex collective improvising. From the same composer “An Ambiguous State Of Mind” embraced a similar range to Facey’s earlier “Yin And Yang” with atmospheric arco bass giving way to an insistent vibes and drum groove that paved the way for outstanding solos from Wright, here espousing a more percussive, metallic tone and Facey on alto, his declamatory tone signalling his most uninhibited and fiery playing of the evening thus far. It had been an excellent first set with tightly focussed, immaculately ensemble sections yet with the individual members given greater soloing freedom than on the record, on reflection the perfect combination for successful live performance. 

If anything the second set was even better with both band and audience more relaxed in the face of this often challenging music. Farmer’s “Say What You Mean, Mean What You Say” , the opening piece on the new album, incorporated Facey’s whistling and wordless vocals plus interlocking sax and vibes supported by a highly flexible and adaptable rhythm section.

Another Forbes hand drum introduction presaged Facey’s as yet unrecorded “Milk and Honey” which saw the composer sharing the soloing with bassist Farmer. Facey suggested that the tune would be recorded in the future, possibly as some kind of bonus track. He also suggested that its omission from the new record was evidence that “Elements Of Truth” was their most satisfying record so far. Once again it was hard to disagree.

The group went back to their second album for their version of the Dolphy piece “Gazzelloni”, a tune that also appeared on “Out To Lunch!”. Originally written for flute Facey declared it to be a very tricky piece to play on the alto but he made a fine job of it with Wright fulfilling the Bobby Hutcherson role at the vibes. Farmer was also featured with a further bass solo and Forbes series of enterprising drum breaks were punctuated by the chime of Wright’s vibes, the latter approximating the sound of church bells.

Back to the most recent album for Facey’s “In The Grill”, a boxing term, but a piece also inspired by M Base founder Steve Coleman’s comment about the sport being “the sweet science of spatial awareness”. The music bore this out with each group member seemingly enmeshed within their own space yet simultaneously aware of their position within the whole.

They closed with “The Element Of Truth” itself, Wright’s composing début for the group and the title track of the new record. A virtuoso solo vibes introduction saw Wright layering the sound of his instrument by using the foot pedal to create a series of singing overtones. He uses a Musser vibraphone, the same make endorsed by the great Gary Burton, surely another role model. Elsewhere there were memorable contributions from Facey on unusually breathy sounding alto and Farmer on sonorously bowed bass.

The audience loved them and an encore was inevitable, this being the boppish Farmer composition “Spitting Them Out”, which almost seems a bit throwaway on the album but constitutes a terrific live number with Facey at his most Parker-ish and with a series of scintillating vibes and drum exchanges. Facey, in particular, seemed to enjoy this immensely, he just loves to play-“alto mad” as he puts it-and still plays provincial gigs with local rhythm sections as well as popping up in a Pharaoh headdress in the ranks of Jerry Dammers’ Spatial AKA Orchestra.

Tony Dudley Evans of Birmingham jazz reported a late surge in ticket sales following the group’s appearance on Jamie Cullum’s Radio 2 programme on February 14 with the Birmingham crowd at a pleasingly full MAC giving the group a great reception. Ever the professionals the guys in the band congregated in the foyer to sign albums and it was a tribute to their performance that they were kept very busy with a very impressive amount of albums being sold.

The tour continues with the remaining dates listed at http://www.empiricalmusic.com. This is a band on form. Catch them if you can.
   

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