Ronan Guilfoyle

“Hands”

(Portmanteau Records)

Ronan Guilfoyle is an Irish bassist, composer and educator who has earned an international reputation for his work. He first came to prominence in the early 1980s as part of a group led by guitarist Louis Stewart but he has since performed with a veritable galaxy of leading jazz musicians from both sides of the Atlantic, among them guitarist John Abercrombie, saxophonists Julian Arguelles and Dave Liebman and pianist Brad Mehldau. 

Since 1993 he has also been composing for classical ensembles and his works have ranged from solo piano pieces through chamber music to full scale orchestral compositions. As an educator he has taught at The Royal Academy of Music in London, Berklee College of Music in Boston and several other acclaimed international institutions. His book “Creative Rhythmic Concepts for Jazz Improvisation” has become a standard text on the numerous jazz courses now available worldwide.

As an instrumentalist Guilfoyle specialises on the acoustic bass guitar and is considered to be one of the world’s premier exponents of the instrument. His recordings reflect his interests in both jazz and classical music plus the traditional music of his native Ireland with albums such as “Exit” (2003) and “Renaissance Man” (2012) containing syntheses of jazz with other music forms, in these instances traditional Irish and classical respectively.

“Hands”, Guilfoyle’s latest album release is essentially a jazz record but aspects of his other musical activities continue to inform some of the writing. Three of the pieces, including the title track, stem from his ongoing interest in extended-form jazz composition. Other tracks are simpler and include two groove based pieces, a ballad and a closing blues. 

Guilfoyle’s associates on the album include the American musicians Tom Rainey (drums) and David Binney (alto saxophone), two of the leading lights on the contemporary New York City jazz scene. Guilfoyle has collaborated with both musicians before and his association with Rainey dates back for over twenty years with the drummer appearing on Guilfoyle’s Charlie Parker inspired album “Bird” (2001). At the other end of the scale “Hands” marks the recording début of Guilfoyle’s son Chris who appears here on guitar and acquits himself very well in such exalted company. “He was completely undaunted and played the music, both written and improvised, with a maturity well beyond his years” comments Guilfoyle Sr. before going on to add “As I knew he would. I encouraged him by telling him that if he made any mistakes he was out of the family!”

The music on “Hands” has an edgy, urgent New York feel that reflects the presence of Rainey and Binney and the fact that the album was recorded in two four hour sessions at the Systems Two studio in Brooklyn. Opener “In Fairness” is described Ronan as one of the extended-form jazz pieces and immediately establishes that brittle, spiky, urban vibe with a blistering Binney solo above Chris Guilfoyle’s shadowy guitar textures, Rainey’s rolling, polyrhymic drumming and Ronan’s flexible, elastic bass lines. Around halfway through the attention switches to Chris who produces a feverish, angular guitar solo that combines the fluidity of jazz with the power of rock.
It’s a great start all round but particularly for Chris who quickly establishes himself as an equal in some pretty heavy company.

“Sneaky” is one of the two tunes that Ronan describes as “groove pieces”. The insidious, needling feel is a perfect reflection of the title and along the way we get enjoy a great bass and drum dialogue between Ronan and Tom Rainey plus an equally stimulating series of exchanges between Rainey, Binney and Chris.

The title track was originally written in 2012 as the opening movement for Ronan’s “Concerto for Electric Guitar and Orchestra”. Here it has been re-transcribed for the smaller ensemble with Ronan commenting in the accompanying press release about how much the piece has changed and evolved during the process. Its origins are reflected in the tightness of the ensemble playing but there’s also plenty of room given for Binney and Chris Guilfoyle to express themselves as soloists. Once more it’s excellent stuff.

“Telemachus” is the second of the “groove pieces” and like much of the album exhibits something of an Ornette Coleman influence with a memorable hook and groove and some feisty, knotty, gnarly, but always engrossing, group interplay as the leadership baton is passed around the group
- but never in an obvious or predictable way.  Once again there are some excellent exchanges between Ronan and Rainey and also between Binney and Chris.   

“Close Call” is the last of the ‘extended-form’ pieces and in its early stages is centred around a monstrous Ronan bass groove. The acoustic bass guitar that he uses combines something of the punch of an electric bass with the warmth and flexibility of an acoustic stand up. The piece goes through many dynamic changes during the course of its seven minutes and there is a reflective saxophone/guitar dialogue mid tune which subsequently develops into a more vigorous and garrulous group exchange before the original, vaguely Middle Eastern sounding theme returns.

The ballad “Krystal” represents a welcome variation in terms of both mood and pace on an album that has thus far been thoroughly enjoyable but rather intense. It begins with the liquid resonance of Ronan’s solo bass before moving on to embrace Chris Guilfoyle’s languid guitar melody lines, Rainey’s understated, subtly detailed brushed drumming and a commendable warmth from Binney on emotive alto sax.

The album closes with “Nod”, which Ronan describes as a “burning blues”. Son Chris is certainly on fire as he leads the track off with some blistering fret work accompanied only by the chatter and clatter of Rainey’s drums. There’s more than a hint of Ornette again as Binney takes over with a powerful alto solo and Ronan lays down some propulsive bass lines. There’s even a ‘nod’ to conventional jazz structuring by means of a Rainey drum feature in the tune’s closing stages.

I’ll readily admit to knowing precious little about Ronan Guilfoyle before being sent this album, indeed I knew more about Rainey and Binney, but I have to say that I’m very impressed with the Irishman and the way that he fulfils all three roles here as musician, composer and bandleader. His writing is consistently interesting and brings out the best in his bandmates and the rapport between his bass and Rainey’s drums is particularly impressive.

However the real surprise package is Chris Guilfoyle who plays with great maturity and assurance throughout and quickly establishes himself as an exciting new voice on the guitar. Now resident in Dublin the younger Guilfoyle studied at Berklee and has a number of projects of his own on the go. I guess that he’s still in the family and suspect that the rest of us will be hearing a lot more from Chris Guilfoyle.     

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