Indigo Kid II

“Fist Full Of Notes”

(Babel Records BDV14130) 

Guitarist and composer Dan Messore first introduced his Indigo Kid band with the group’s eponymous début for Babel Records in 2012. The first edition of the band was a fascinating mix of youth and experience with Messore and his fellow Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama graduate Gethin Jones (drums) being joined by the relative veterans Iain Ballamy (saxophones) and Tim Harries (bass).

The first Indigo Kid album won considerable critical acclaim and Messore played a number of gigs with the band including an excellent performance at the 2012 Brecon Jazz Festival with a line up featuring Trish Clowes on tenor sax, Calum Gourlay on double bass and Martin France at the drums.

Away from Indigo Kid Messore has also fronted the quintet Lacuna featuring Steve Waterman (trumpet) and Lee Goodall (reeds) with whom he recorded the Babel album “Talk On The Step”. He has also been involved with the nu-folk group Little Arrow and is currently a member of Michelson Morley, the fascinating electro-jazz outfit led by Get The Blessing saxophonist Jake McMurchie. Messore also hosts the regular Sunday afternoon jazz series “View From The Tower” at London’s Vortex Jazz Club, the series title doubtless a nod to the enterprising Babel record label.

Messore’s second Indigo Kid release introduces a different line up with Harries remaining from the first album and with touring band personnel Clowes and France coming into the group. Ballamy’s influence is not forgotten and he guests on tenor sax on two of the album’s ten tracks.

The album title “Fist Full Of Notes” continues the ‘Wild West’ imagery of the first album but of course there’s also the word play aspect of ‘Notes’ in the musical sense. The bank bills featured on the cover are actually from Costa Rica, a country in which the much travelled guitarist used to live.

Messore has mentioned the influence of Costa Rica on his writing for this album stating;
“When writing for this album I had a clear intention of connecting two places that are muses to me. I am very much inspired by natural surroundings and my interaction with them and these two locations, Pembrokeshire, West Wales and Santa Teresa, Costa Rica are both areas of wild, abundant natural beauty; I have been fortunate enough to live in both. The connectedness to rustic dwelling, beach fires, surfing and an outdoors lifestyle was something that I wanted to try and convey in the composition”.
Messore’s remarks are reflected in the music which is often cinematic and scope and possessed of a tangible pictorial quality, something which is enhanced by Messore’s discreet and tasteful use of electronics to broaden and deepen his sound. Some pieces on the album are also imbued with the melancholia felt by Messore on the death of his father with compositions such as “Carpet Boys” and “The Healing Process” being directly inspired by that event. Indeed memory as a concept has been a key component in the writing of this music. 

The album begins with the atmospheric “Snow On The Presellis”, a richly textured evocation of the scenic beauties of Pembrokeshire with Messore’s guitars delivering both acoustic and electronic sounds ranging from full on soloing to ambient sound-washes. Clowes’ tenor sax weaves in and out and the track is also notable for an assured drumming performance from the consistently excellent France.

I assume that the title “Waiting For Paula” is a reference to Paula Gardiner, head of Jazz at the RWCMD and presumably one of Messore’s former tutors. The composition itself covers a variety of jazz styles and has a very contemporary, almost New York feel. It is notable for the dovetailing of Messore’s guitar with Clowes’ warm toned tenor sax. The guitarist again deploys a modicum of tasteful electronica and it’s his intelligent mastery of his effects that helps to make this album so distinctive. 

“Carpet Boys”, one of the pieces inspired by the loss of Messore’s father, is one of the album’s key tracks and at some nine minutes in length is genuinely cinematic in scope. Messore’s influences include the usual guitar suspects such as Bill Frisell, Pat Metheny and Kurt Rosenwinkel but there’s also more than a hint of seventies prog here as Messore solos at length, conjuring up an exciting variety of sounds as France drums up a storm. Icily ambient sound-washes then contrast well with the warmth of Clowes’ tenor as she takes the next solo.

As the title suggests “All Hands To Dance And Sing” is lighter in tone with Clowes delivering a lively tenor solo underpinned by France’s skittering drum grooves. Meanwhile Messore adopts a more conventional jazz guitar sound for his own warmly effusive solo. He re-introduces the electronic elements towards the end, creating an ambient, swirling backdrop for the closing conversation between France and Harries.

“From Here To Our Place” is a second evocation of prog rock glories and the music also has a vaguely Eastern/Indian feel that speaks of the influence of folk and world music. Messore is in superb form again as he generates a whole panoply of interesting sounds from his guitar. He’s given terrific support by Harries and France and the swirling, psychedelic textures sometimes recall Revolver period Beatles.

Ballamy takes over the saxophone duties for the emotive “The Healing Process” which combines conventional jazz balladry with contemporary electronic sounds. Ballamy, Messore’s one time mentor, plays with great feeling on a piece that its composer has described as “an acknowledgement of pain”.

The mysteriously titled “Mr Randall” dives more deeply into the electronic depths with France effectively the lead instrumentalist, his colourful and powerful drumming supplemented by the snarl of Harries’ wah wah bass and the darkly textured washes and glitches from Messore’s guitar. It’s a piece that sounds as if it may well have been influenced by France’s own Spin Marvel project.

“Quiet Waters” finds Messore re-introducing acoustic guitar sounds and re-establishing his creative partnership with Clowes on a piece that is clearly designed to evoke the spirit of a specific location.

“The Bay” then blends the Americana twang of Bill Frisell with muscular contemporary grooves and includes a richly melodic electric bass solo from Harries alongside features for Clowes and Messore.

Following his earlier ballad excursion Ballamy returns to the fray to flex his muscles on the more assertive “Sketches In The Fabric”, the most loosely structured piece of the set with an atmosphere more akin to an extended jam. Ballamy solos forcefully above the pulse of Harries’ electric bass and the percussive flow of France’s drums as Messore’s guitar weaves in and out before the piece plays itself out by entering more abstract territory with the ending edited out. The last thing we hear is an unresolved saxophone phrase from Ballamy.

Despite ending with an element of uncertainty (but maybe the subtext is - “to be continued”) “Fist Full Of Notes” is a worthy successor to the inaugural Indigo Kid recording and builds upon the début’s success. Messore develops further the jazz, folk and country influences of the first record and his introduction of the prog and electronic elements is thoroughly convincing. This second album explores a wide range of musical, geographical and emotional territory and Messore’s song like compositions have the potential to appeal to a broad swathe of adventurous listeners.

Messore is a free spirit and an ambitious and adventurous writer who has transcended his numerous influences to create an imaginative and colourful music that is very much his own. One senses that there is even more to come from this highly talented young musician and composer.   

   

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