Gerard Presencer / Danish Radio Big Band

“Groove Travels”

(Edition Records EDN 1065)

The British born trumpeter Gerard Presencer has been living in Copenhagen since July 2010 when he answered a call to join The Danish Radio Big Band under the directorship of Chris Minh Doky. Prior to this Presencer had been pursuing an academic career as Head of Jazz at the Royal Academy of Music but had found his playing opportunities becoming increasingly limited, particularly in the UK.

Presencer settled quickly in Denmark on both a personal and professional level and was soon contributing arrangements and featuring as guest soloist with the DRBB, a prestigious institution that was founded in 1964 and which has been led by such luminaries as Ernie Wilkins, Thad Jones , Bob Brookmeyer and Jim McNeely. Guest soloists have included Miles Davis, Stan Getz, Ben Webster, Joe Henderson, Randy Brecker and Phil Woods with top Danish musicians such as Palle Mikkelborg and Nils Henning Orsted Pedersen also passing through the band’s ranks.

Presencer, whose previous big band experience includes NYJO, the BBC Big Band and the Charlie Watts Big Band, seems totally unphased about following in the footsteps of such giants. Indeed the trumpeter, born in 1972, has been a professional musician for over twenty years and attracted a huge amount of attention back in 1993 when he played the trumpet solo on the US3 hit “Cantaloop Flip-Fantasia”,  a reworking of Herbie Hancock’s “Cantaloupe Island”. 

I also remember an early edition of the Cheltenham Jazz Festival when Presencer deputised for the indisposed Freddie Hubbard and gave a brilliant performance in the Pillar Room venue, quickly winning over the audience by playing his own music rather than attempting to imitate the inimitable.

Despite this early success Presencer has been relatively under recorded in the intervening years, particularly as a leader. He made two albums for the Scottish label Linn (“Platypus” in 1998 and “The Optimist” in 2000) before moving to the Munich based ACT for “Chasing Reality” (2002). Academia then took over although he has continued to work more prolifically as a sideman. Nevertheless “Groove Travels” represents the first record under his own name for fourteen years. I have fond memories of the fusion-esque “Platypus” recording, purchased in the wake of that Cheltenham performance. The new album may be very different, but it’s good to see him back. 

During his tenure with the DRBB Presencer has accumulated a number of big band arrangements and took the decision to document them with the help of the band. As the album title suggests Presencer was keen to introduce an element of cross culturalism to the music and has achieved this with the addition of two special guests. The American Adam Rapa plays the lead trumpet parts on five pieces, thereby freeing up Presencer as the featured trumpet/flugel soloist. Meanwhile the Cuban percussionist Eliel Lazo adds a welcome touch of colour to three of the tracks.

Presencer’s liner notes explain the “Groove Travels” aesthetic thus;
“The ‘Grooves’ that make up this collection of compositions and arrangements are not from any one place or time. Each represents an experience that has left a lasting impression on me. I hear these grooves in restaurant background music, in corner shops or at festivals checking out other bands. I grab a scrap of paper and write down one or two bars of rhythmic patterns and imagine what would be interesting to play over it”.

The programme on “Groove Travels” consists of five Presencer originals plus innovative arrangements of Wayne Shorter’s “Footprints”, the song “I Can’t Stop Loving You” and the Beatles tune “Eleanor Rigby”. The accompanying press release includes Presencer’s notes on each piece, something that I will allude to in due course.

For the record the DRBB lined up for this album as follows;

Gerard Presencer, Michael Molhede, Christer Gustafsson, Thomas Kjaergard, Jens Christian Godholdt – trumpets/flugels

Vincent Nilsson, Steen Hansen, Anders Larson, Ola Nordquist – trombones

Andre Jensen – tuba & bass trombone

Nicolai Schultz, Peter Fuglsang, Pelle Friddell, Hans Ulrik Jensen, Karl-Martin Almqvist, Anders Gaardmand – saxophones

Per Gade – guitar

Kaspar Vadsholt – acoustic & electric bass

Soren Frost – drums

Henrik Gunde – keyboards

guests;

Adam Rapa – lead trumpet (tracks 2, 3, 6, 7, 8)

Eliel Lazo – percussion (tracks 2,5,7)

The album commences with “Another Weirdo”, written and arranged by Presencer. The title is in keeping with the “travelling” theme of the album and refers to those incidences on a train or bus journey when the mood of serenity is punctured by the entry of a disruptive passenger, the ‘weirdo’ or ‘nutter on the bus’. The music charts the changes of mood in the writer/protagonist occasioned by this and also draws inspiration from a groove by the group Zero7, with whom Presencer once worked. The lush big band textures are offset by rock inspired grooves that feature electric keyboards and guitar. Presencer is the featured soloist, his flugelhorn soaring eloquently above the sophisticated big band arrangements and dynamic rhythm parts which feature drummer Frost in a prominent role. There’s a strong sense of narrative as the music unfolds, the dynamics rising and falling, ebbing and flowing as they illustrate Presencer’s story.

A second original, “Blues For Des”, was initially inspired by a West African rhythm that Presencer heard. Introduced by a passage of solo flugel horn from Presencer the tune has taken on a different feel in recent years but still retains a joyous urgency that is heightened here by the presence of guest percussionist Lazo. The superb ensemble playing is enhanced by expansive and exploratory solos by Karl-Martin Almqvist on tenor sax and Presencer himself on flugel.

Presencer’s “Ballad or Tango of The Misunderstood” is so named because it contains elements of both with the composer noting that elements of bossa nova have also crept into recent performances. Presencer dedicates the tune to the late, great Kenny Wheeler whose writing methods had a strong influence on the piece. Wheeler’s own love of tango is evident in an appropriately sophisticated arrangement that includes features for Presencer on flugel, Henrik Gunde on trilling Fender Rhodes and Pelle Friddell on sinuous soprano sax. 

“The Devil’s Larder” was written in 2003 and stems from Presencer’s love of progressive rock, something that also informs the “Platypus” album. It was originally performed by a four piece group that featured the drumming of the late Chris Dagley, to whom both this tune and indeed the entire album is dedicated. The tune has had a number of incarnations in the intervening years including as a brass and rhythm section piece and as an extravaganza featuring two big bands with saxophone arrangements by Tom Richards. Richards receives credit for his additional arrangements on this version which plunges headlong into prog territory with clangorous electric guitar and multiple keyboards featuring in the arrangement alongside the brass and reeds, the whole thing driven by Frost’s dynamic drumming. There are no credited soloists but the powerful and stirring ensemble performance is a source of considerable delight for someone like me whose musical roots lie in the prog rock era.

Presencer maintains a fondness for the melodicism of The Beatles and praises the sophistication and subtle subversiveness of their writing. His arrangement of “Eleanor Rigby” pairs the famous melody with a Latinesque groove inspired variously by the sound of the Blue Note and CTI labels and the music of Mongo Santamaria. Essentially the tune becomes a boogaloo, which in lesser hands could have descended into a bland, smooth jazz mush. Fortunately the sophistication and intelligence of Presencer’s arrangement plus the vivacity and quality of the playing saves the music from such a fate with Lazo a distinctive presence alongside the featured soloists, Presencer on flugel. Gade on guitar, Vadsholt on electric bass and Frost at the drums.

As its title suggests the Presencer original “Istanbul Coffee Cup” tips its fez in the direction of Middle Eastern music with the composer acknowledging the influence of the Lebanese trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf on his phrasing in this piece. The underlying groove comes from a band that Presencer saw playing at a restaurant in Istanbul, their virtuoso playing being totally ignored by the majority of the customers. British jazz musicians will doubtless sympathise. The arrangement is suitably exotic and, for me, this is one of the most beguiling pieces on the entire album with Presencer’s Maaalouf inspired playing complemented by the arresting dialogue between Vincent Nilsson on trombone and Petr Fuglslang on soprano sax.

Presencer’s arrangement of the famous Wayne Shorter composition “Footprints” blends Afro-Cuban rhythms with those of ‘car chase’ scenes in American TV cop shows. It’s an approach that manages to find something fresh to say about one of the most familiar jazz compositions of the modern era. Lazo adds a touch of genuine Cuban exotica and Presencer features on both trumpet and flugel alongside Hans Ulrik’s muscular tenor sax and Steen Hansen’s rumbustious trombone.

The album concludes with Presencer’s arrangement of Billy Nicholls’ song “I Can’t Stop Loving You”, once a hit for Leo Sayer! Presencer and the band play the piece as a slow waltz and deliberately keep the arrangement simple and unadorned. It does however contain an alternative melody written by Presencer’s wife Siobhan Lamb, who also co-produces. Presencer is the only featured soloist, this time on trumpet, his tone plaintive but pure. He’s a great technician and a wonderfully fluent and imaginative soloist, qualities that shine throughout the album. The last few bars of this effective and moving piece are a quote from Kenny Wheeler’s album “Music for Large and Small Ensembles”, a key influence on Presencer’s writing and arranging.

“Groove Travels” represents an impressive statement from Presencer and marks his welcome return to the jazz front-line. His soloing is immaculate throughout, inventive, imaginative, colourful and tasteful. The DRBB, widely considered to be one of the best big bands in the world, offer him terrific support and the arrangements have something of the sophistication of the late, great Gil Evans. It’s maybe a little bit too smooth at times and could have done with a little more passion and a few rough edges but overall this album is a triumph for this great British jazz export. 

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