Hugh Pascall Quartet with guest Julian Siegel, The Hive Music & Media Centre, Shrewsbury, 08/10/2022.

Hugh Pascall – trumpet, flugelhorn, Liam Dunachie – keyboard, Oli Hayhurst – double bass, Jay Davis drums with Julian Siegel – tenor saxophone

Hugh Pascall is a Nottingham born trumpeter and composer who studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London and at the Paris Conservatoire. Mentored by Gerard Presencer he has since performed with saxophonists Tony Kofi and Nadim Teimoori, trombonist Dennis Rollins, guitarist Joe Egan and with the New York collective The Last Poets.

He has established strong links with the Birmingham jazz scene and has also worked with many musicians based in that city including pianist Hans Koller, pianist /organist David Ferris, drummer /composer Tom Haines, saxophonist Alicia Gardener-Trejo and guitarist Aidan Pope. He has also featured in the ranks of the Birmingham Jazz Orchestra.

On the London scene he has worked with Ben Lamdin’s Nostalgia 77 and with the large ensemble E17 Collective. He has also worked as a session musician across a variety of musical genres.

Tonight’s Shrewsbury Jazz Network presentation featured Pascall leading his regular working group featuring pianist Liam Dunachie, bassist Oli Hayhurst and drummer Jay Davis. This quartet features on Pascall’s début album “Borderlands”, which was recorded in January 2022 and released in June on his own Attica record label. Attica is also the name of the creative space and recording studio that Pascall runs in his native Nottingham.

The Pascall quartet have been touring in support of the album but a broken arm sustained by the trumpeter while playing tennis threatened to disrupt their itinerary. Pascall still has his left arm in a cast and is undergoing physiotherapy and at one point it looked as if the Shrewsbury gig may have to be postponed.

However Pascall sustained no damage to his right hand, the one that manipulates the trumpet valves, and despite the physical pain caused to the left arm by holding the instrument up to play he felt that he could still perform live if another front line player was drafted in to share some of the load. Hence the presence of fellow Nottingham native Julian Siegel, a bandleader in his own right and one of the finest saxophonist / composers the UK has produced. Siegel has previous good form as a ‘supersub’,I recall him depping for Mike Chillingworth in guitarist Ant Law’s group in 2015 and for Mark Lockheart with pianist Andrew McCormack during that same year.

With all due respect to rising star Pascall the presence of a big name like Siegel on tonight’s gig may actually have put a few extra ‘bums on seats’. The saxophonist had previously visited The Hive leading his own quartet and also with McCormack’s group. Certainly tonight’s performance was better attended than the previous month’s event featuring vocalist Brigitte Beraha and her Lucid Dreamers quartet. SJN chairman Mike Wright was well satisfied by tonight’s turnout, which included many walk-ups, but was slightly concerned that people have got out of the habit of booking in advance. An inevitable consequence of Covid I guess.

Turning now to the music which was of a far more ‘straightahead’ style of jazz than than the Lucid Dreamers group. Although still relatively young (he was born in 1983) Pascall’s primary influence is the hard bop era with trumpeter Freddie Hubbard and saxophonists Joe Henderson, Wayne Shorter and John Coltrane cited as significant instrumental and compositional influences.

Tonight’s set mixed original material from the “Borderlands” album with the quartet’s arrangements of a number of jazz standards. It was one of the latter that kicked off tonight’s gig with Pascall on trumpet and Siegel on tenor exchanging melodic phrases on the introduction to “Without A Song”.  Subsequent solos came from Pascall and Siegel plus further features for Dunachie, Hayhurst and Davis as we were introduced to the musical voices of all five members of the band. The piece concluded with a further series of exchanges between the horns.

Despite his injury Pascall played with a remarkable fluency and assurance, while the versatile Siegel is always a class act. With his keyboard on an acoustic piano setting throughout the gig Dunachie also impressed with the vivacity and adventurousness of his soloing. Hayhurst is also the regular bassist with Siegel’s quartet but tonight enjoyed a greater freedom as a soloist, a role he seemed to relish. He also linked up well with drummer Jay Davis, who also made the most of the solo features that came his way.

Pascall moved to flugel for “June Light”, the opening track on the “Borderlands” album. This was taken at a gentler pace than the opener and was ushered in by the trio of piano, bass and drums. Pascall and Siegel, the latter specialising on tenor sax throughout the evening, then combined effectively on the melodic theme before handing over to Dunachie for the first solo. The pianist began in lyrical fashion before exploring more expansively as the music gathered momentum. Pascall then took over on flugel, the eloquence of his playing on this instrument suggesting the influence of the great Kenny Wheeler. Siegel’s tenor solo saw the group moving into sax trio mode with the guest soloist probing incisively. As sax and bass dropped out Davis was left to deliver his second drum feature of the set before the horns returned to coalesce on a final restatement of the theme.

Pascall offered no explanation for the title of “Easy E”, a second tune sourced from the “Borderlands” album. One suspects that the source of inspiration probably wasn’t NWA rapper Eazy-E, but you never know. This was a genuine jazz ballad with the leader on gentle, lyrical, blues tinged trumpet, at times reminiscent of the ballad style of Miles Davis. Siegel also revealed his softer side on tenor and the piece was also notable for the exquisite cymbal work of Jay Davis, who deployed mallets almost throughout.

At this point Pascall decided to give his left arm a rest, his first concession to his injury, as Siegel took over the leadership reins for a quartet performance of the Cedar Walton composition “Bolivia”.  Siegel has a particular affinity for the music of the late, great pianist and composer, having recorded Walton’s “Fantasy in D” on his 2011 album “Urban Theme Park”, an album that also features the playing of Hayhurst. Both Siegel and Hayhurst were to shine on “Bolivia”, soloing expansively on tenor sax and double bass respectively either side of Dunachie’s piano excursions. Hayhurst’s solo expanded into a dialogue with Davis, with the drummer subsequently taking over for his own feature.

After some discussion and with forty five minutes already on the clock it was decided that the band should take a break at this point, thus bringing to an end a very enjoyable first set.

Pascall returned suitably re-energised at the start of the second set which commenced with a new, as yet untitled, tune. This was very much out of the bebop tradition with its tricky, fast moving ‘head’, played by the trumpeter as a kind of ‘mini solo’ before he was joined by Siegel’s tenor, the saxophonist subsequently taking over for the first full length solo. Dunachie followed with a barnstorming solo that reminded of his fiery playing as a member of saxophonist Simon Spillett’s quartet at the 2022 Brecon Jazz Festival. The pianist also traded ideas with drummer Davis in a series of vivacious exchanges before the horns returned to take things blazing out. Pascall remarked that his composition was a “cheeky little tune”, a phrase that would work very well as a title.

However the title of “Freewheel”, a tune from the “Borderlands” album was somewhat misleading. With Pascall switching to flugel this was a piece that proved to be gentler than expected, a ballad with lyrical solos from Pascall, Siegel and Dunachie and a melodic double bass feature from the excellent Hayhurst.

An arrangement of Hoagy Carmichael’s “Skylark” saw a return to the standards repertoire. With Pascall taking another rest this was a quartet performance led by Siegel’s tenor with solos for saxophone and piano and with Davis delivering some deft brush work.

Pascall then returned for “Alhambra”, another original tune from the album. This was introduced by a flugelhorn / piano duet, with Siegel’s tenor subsequently added, followed by the full band. Solos came from Pascall on flugel and Siegel on probing tenor, followed by Dunachie at the piano and Davis at the drums.

The longer second set concluded with the brilliantly titled “Think Before You Think”, a piece by the American drummer Bill Stewart, a bandleader and composer in his own right and a musician who has worked with Pat Metheny, John Scofield, Steve Swallow, Joe Lovano and many others. Appropriately this was a highly rhythmic piece that was introduced by Davis at the drums with bass and piano added before Pascall, restored to the trumpet, and Siegel combined on the complex head. Individual solos came from Siegel, Pascall and Dunachie, followed by a bass and drum dialogue that evolved into a major feature for Davis, his playing sometimes reminiscent of Stewart himself. The horns then re-combined for a final restatement of the theme.

This second set was very well received by the Shrewsbury audience and the band was obliged to deliver a somewhat reluctant encore, that reluctance being very understandable given Pascall’s circumstances. This proved to be a Liam Dunachie arrangement of the standard “Softly As In A Morning Sunrise”, introduced with a passage of unaccompanied piano, subsequently joined by bass and drums. Pascall and Siegel then stepped up to deliver solos on trumpet and tenor with Dunachie also featuring on piano.

This had been an excellent evening of music making with Pascall triumphing over adversity, aided by Siegel and the other members of this first rate band. The “Borderlands” album includes a further two pieces that we didn’t hear tonight, the ballad “Avion” and upbeat album closer “Making Peace”.
Several of the tracks find Dunachie deploying an electric piano or ‘Rhodes’ sound, an indication perhaps of the influence of fusion era Freddie Hubbard on the leader’s own playing.

My thanks to Hugh and Julian for speaking with me afterwards. It was good to meet Hugh for the first time and to catch up with Julian again after a long hiatus.

Pascall has a number of other gigs lined up in the near future with his old friend James Allsopp taking on the saxophone duties.

October 13 2022 @ 7:00 pm - 10:00 pm
Hugh Pascall Quintet with James Allsopp – Nottingham – Peggy’s Skylight, Nottingham

October 17 2022 @ 7:00 pm - 11:00 pm
Hugh Pascall Quintet with James Allsopp – London – The Oxford, Kentish Town

More at http://www.hughpascall.co