Rory Simmons is a very busy guy, trumpeter of choice for Jamie Cullum he is also a considerable creative force in his own right. Simmons is a member of the increasingly important Loop Collective, the aggregation of young London based musicians who are rapidly becoming major figures on the UK jazz and contemporary music scene.

Simmons has led the band Curve and continues to run his own more mainstream quartet (a 2008 quartet show in Cardiff is reviewed elsewhere on this site) but perhaps his most important project is his nine piece ensemble Fringe Magnetic who are making their recording début with this release on the Loop Collective’s own label.

For Fringe Magnetic Simmons has assembled some of Loop’s leading lights namely Robin Fincker (clarinet), James Allsopp (bass clarinet), Ivo Neame (piano), Jasper Hoiby (bass) and Ben Reynolds (drums).Simmons’ writing for Fringe Magnetic incorporates jazz, classical and folk idioms and the nonet also includes flautist Tory Freestone, violinist Kit Massey and cellist Natalie Rozario. The ensemble is supplemented by two guest vocalists in the shape of the Norwegian born singer Elisabeth Nygaard and the extraordinary Andrew Plummer whose distinctive Beefheartian vocals can also be heard fronting his own World Sanguine Report.

“Empty Spaces” is a wide ranging album that draws on Simmons’ many influences but transcends them to produce something unique and fascinating. This is music that draws on the traditions of the U.S.A. and Scandinavia as well as the U.K. with Simmons citing figures such as Dave Douglas, John Zorn, Christian Wallumrod, Tim Berne, Django Bates and Hanne Hukkelburg as inspirations for his writing. His trumpet heroes include Douglas, Freddie Hubbard, Cuong Vu and Ralph Alessi but it’s primarily Simmons the composer that we’re concerned with in Fringe Magnetic. “Empty Spaces” is about the overall feel and concept with the focus on ensemble playing rather than blazing solos. Indeed Simmons the trumpeter retains a pretty low profile instrumentally throughout much of the album.

The album commences with the dense and quirky “Eyeball” complete with odd meter grooves and lithe, lissom woodwind and string figures that draw on folk and classical sources as well as jazz. It’s tightly disciplined yet delightfully whimsical at the same time and sometimes recalls the writing of Django Bates in that despite the tight knit density of it all there are moments when the whole thing threatens to fall deliciously apart. It doesn’t of course and in time pianist Ivo Neame emerges to deliver a stunningly inventive, ever evolving solo superbly supported by the imaginative percussion of Ben Reynolds.

Simmons’ tenure with Cullum has given him a love of songs and lyrics. The title track marks the first appearance of vocalist Elisabeth Nygaard singing her own lyrics to Simmons’ music. The singer is now based in Leeds but brings some Scandinavian cool to a chilled out ballad which makes good use of Rozario’s melancholy cello. Nygaard’s vocals take inspiration from her fellow countrywomen such as Sidsel Endresen with the poppier Icelander Bjork also cited as an influential figure.

“Little Boban” is another delightful instrumental interlude with Simmons’ trumpet for once prominent in the arrangement as the ensemble dances above Rozario’s pizzicato cello bass line. Elsewhere the woodwinds of Freestone, Fincker and Allsopp dovetail beautifully and violinist Massey sometimes takes over the melody line. Fincker emerges with a slippery, inventive clarinet solo but this is once more primarily a superb ensemble piece, beautifully played but with Fringe Magnetic’s signature whimsy still very much intact.

“Tiden”, the Norwegian word for “Time” is a much darker item featuring Nygaard’s haunting words and vocals above a malevolent groove that fuses dramatically with the wilfully dissonant voicings of the horns.

At a guess “Baron And Bump” is Simmons’ tribute to the great New York Downtown drummers Joey Baron and Bobby Previte. It opens in almost classical vein with unaccompanied strings and woodwind but a shuffling groove soon emerges via Reynold’s drums and Allsopp’s buzzing bass clarinet. A freer middle section first features Neame’s piano, followed by interlocking horns and even strings. I would surmise that much of the music here is entirely improvised, albeit within a loosely defined framework.

A reprise of “Empty Spaces” marks the first appearance of Andrew Plummer here in a brief, wordless duet with Nygaard. The pair explore the more extreme ranges of the human voice with Plummer’s soft animalistic growl offset offset by Nygaard’s tremulous warblings. It’s the kind of territory historically explored by the likes of Julie Tippetts, Maggie Nichols and Phil Minton.

Plummer really comes into his own with “Ish”, Simmons’ setting of the Charles Bukowski poem “Unblinking Grief”. Like Plummer’s own World Sanguine Report this is pretty extreme stuff. Plummer’s unhinged delivery, a cross between Captain Beefheart and Tom Waits, is right out there and amply does justice to the desperation inherent in Bukowski’s words (“the most terrible thing about life is finding it gone” etc.). Simmons is a fan of Bukowski’s writing and he serves his hero well here. The music complements Plummers’ howling perfectly and there’s even a jaunty little postcript in the form of “Ish Outro"to sweeten the dish. A whole album of Plummer’s mannered style is hard to take but this cameo performance is just right and really hits the mark.

The mood hardly lightens for the song “Making Sense Of You and Me” another effective joining of Simmons’ music and Nygaard’s words. The vocalist turns in another powerful and distinctive performance and is complemented by the sympathetic support of the rest of the group with Neame delivering a typically flowing solo.

The album closes with two complementary instrumental pieces “Short Stories” and “Tall Stories”.The first is impressionistic combining a chamber music atmosphere with elements of free jazz. “Tall Stories” mixes written ensemble passages with jazz blowing .Simmons, Fincker and Reynolds all feature on this lengthy, agreeably jaunty piece which ends the album on a positive note.

“Empty Spaces” is a challenging but rewarding album that contains some colourful writing and some superb ensemble playing. Simmons and his collaborators cover a broad stylistic and emotional range varying from the whimsical to the dark. The vocal performances are well judged and add some welcome variety to the album. Simmons can be justifiably proud of this, his large ensemble writing début.

Fringe Magnetic are due to appear at the 2010 Cheltenham Jazz Festival. On the evidence of this album it’s a performance that promises to be one of the festival highlights and it is one I’d very much like to see.

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