John Etheridge & Vimala Rowe

“Out Of The Sky”

(DYAD Records DY 028)

“Out Of The Sky” is the recently released début recording by the duo of veteran guitarist John Etheridge and promising vocal newcomer Vimala Rowe.

Etheridge is a supremely versatile guitarist, a serial collaborator who has worked with everybody from Stephane Grappelli to Soft Machine as well as releasing several genre spanning albums under his own name.  His talents have been endorsed by perhaps the ultimate guitar authority, none other than Pat Metheny.

Rowe is a highly accomplished jazz singer who has worked on the London jazz scene with saxophonist Bobby Wellins and pianists Jonathan Gee and Alex Webb amongst others. She has also worked with the rap band TKO, guitar legend Tommy Emmanuel, and released the EP “Vimala”, a collaboration with bassist Simon Horn that won an Indy Award for ‘Best Soul, Jazz and Funk Act’ in 2008.

The collaboration between Etheridge and Rowe developed from a spontaneous meeting as the guitarist’s liner notes explain;
“I first met Vimala while walking on Hampstead Heath. We struck up a conversation ,talking about music and philosophy. A few months later she came with friends to one of my solo shows and I invited her up to sing. The audience and I were taken straight to another dimension through the soul, range and passion of her singing”.

Etheridge goes on to shed a little light on the duo’s working methods. He continues;
“We started working together from that point and have developed a repertoire that touches and draws on our roots and experiences; shared and individual, emotional and musical.. The aim is to make the personal universal (and vice versa). This is something I hope Vimala and I have achieved on this recording and that the listener can feel the spirit and commitment in the work”.

The programme on “Out Of The Sky” includes original songs, jazz standards and a series of unusual and inspired covers that draw on various world music sources. As well as being an excellent jazz and soul vocalist Rowe has studied classical Hindustani singing while Etheridge has frequently incorporated African and flamenco elements into his guitar playing. The resultant music thus avoids the usual jazz vocal clichés as Etheridge and Rowe do indeed come up with a sound that is both personal and unique. “Out Of The Sky” is a recording that simmers with a quiet intensity, the performances are emotive and tightly focussed, often beautiful but infused with a gentle, almost spiritual power.

The album commences with the jointly composed original “Blue Breeze”. The title might suggest an airy bossa but instead this is a darker, deeply emotive performance that begins with the sound of Rowe’s unaccompanied voice, soulful and gospel infused but dripping with emotion. Etheridge deploys a number of guitars on the album including his signature Fret King Elise JE and his playing is the perfect accompaniment to Rowe’s singing, his gentle chording providing the backbone of the song while his dramatic, ringing lead guitar sound matches the emotion in Rowe’s voice. In some respects it’s a somewhat bleak opening track but there’s no denying its emotional power as the duo set their stall out in attention grabbing fashion.

The mood is less intense on Fadhili Williams’ lovely, lilting “Malaika” which sees the pair bringing their African influences to the fore in another delightfully intimate duo performance which features Etheridge playing a Rosendean guitar and Rowe singing effectively in what I believe to be Swahili.

The original song “Sometimes We Have To Part” is credited to Rowe and Sam Evol and it’s an effective piece of writing, an intelligent relationship song that sees Rowe’s vocal borrowing from the best of the jazz and soul universes as guest Dudley Phillips helps to fill out the duo’s sound on double bass. Rowe’s live performances have sometimes featured a quartet including Etheridge, Phillips and drummer Mark Fletcher.

A cover of Duke Ellington’s “In My Solitude” demonstrates Rowe’s jazz credentials, her phrasing is exemplary and she invests the lyrics with genuine emotion. Meanwhile Etheridge deploys an acoustic guitar sound and even introduces a subtle flamenco element to the proceedings. It all sounds perfectly natural on yet another beautifully intimate and finely judged duo performance.

The duo’s arrangement of “Syriac Aramaic Prayer” has a genuinely spiritual feel with Rowe again performing convincingly in a language that I presume to be Aramaic. Etheridge makes effective use of technology to create judicious soundwashes at certain points in the performance, these supplementing the distinctive sound of his fretless guitar. It’s a hypnotic piece of music making that quickly draws in and absorbs the listener.

“Drive” is the second composition credited to Rowe/Evol, a genuine love song with a warm emotive vibe - “you driving me home with this blissful feeling” sings Rowe to the accompaniment of Etheridge’s expert acoustic guitar picking and Phillips’ grounding but melodic double bass.

We finally get to hear Rowe’s Hindustani style vocals on Etheridge’s arrangement of the traditional tune “Ya Kundendu – Saraswati Sloka”. It’s another convincing ‘non-English’ vocal performance from Rowe and the air of Eastern spirituality is enhanced by the sitar like timbres of Etheridge’s guitar.

The album concludes with two performances of jazz standards beginning with “Dark Shadows”, a tune credited to Colman/Henry and made famous by Charlie Parker. It’s a chance for Rowe to remind us again of her jazz chops as she channels the spirits of Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday and other jazz vocal heroines. Rowe’s assured performance is augmented by Etheridge’s always tasteful playing of a Hybrid bass/guitar. 

Fitzgerald, Holiday and Sarah Vaughan all recorded “Detour Ahead”, a song written by guitarist Herb Ellis in conjunction with John Frigo and Lou Carter. The tune was also made famous as an instrumental by pianist Bill Evans. Here Rowe makes it her own in an intimate duo performance that neatly encapsulates the virtues of this album, the “spirit and commitment” of which Etheridge speaks.

I’ve followed Etheridge’s music from my prog rock days and his work with the Softs and Darryl Way’s Wolf and then on through his jazz output with Grappelli, his duo with violinist Christian Garrick and his own Sweet Chorus group. So it’s no surprise to hear him in sublime form here, his musicianship as tasteful and accomplished as ever.

Instead it’s Rowe, essentially a new name to me, who is the revelation. Yes, she’s a superb interpreter of jazz standards as she reveals here, and could no doubt enjoy a successful career doing just that. But it’s her adventurous forays into world jazz plus the quality of her own songwriting that mark her out as a talent to watch. Vimala Rowe is a singer that I’m sure we’ll be hearing a lot more of.

“Out Of The Sky” is an excellent album but the intimacy, intensity and sheer variety of these duo performances may dissuade some listeners. Indeed one suspects that the duo of Etheridge and Rowe would probably be best appreciated in the atmosphere of a tiny jazz club or small theatre where every nuance of the singing and playing could be fully experienced and appreciated in the most intimate of listening environments. 

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