Josh Arcoleo

“Beginnings”

(Edition Records EDN1030)

Twenty three year old tenor saxophonist Josh Arcoleo is already beginning to make a big impression on the UK jazz scene. His appropriately titled début album appears on the increasingly influential Edition label and finds him in the company of Phronesis pianist Ivo Neame plus a rhythm section of bassist Calum Gourlay and drummer James Maddren. 

The Royal Academy of Music graduate has also studied extensively with former James Brown saxophonist Pee Wee Ellis and toured with Ellis’ Assembly and Still Black,Still Proud bands. 2011 also saw him performing as part of the sextet that pianist Kit Downes took on the road in support of the excellent album “Quiet Tiger”. This ensemble included Gourlay and Maddren, Downes’ partners in his regular trio.

The “Beginnings” album came about as a direct result of Arcoleo’s winning of the inaugural Kenny Wheeler Jazz Prize in 2011, part of the award being the opportunity to make an album with Edition. On the evidence of this recording Arcoleo has grabbed his chance with both hands and the result is an assured, confident and mature musical statement. Other awards have also been forthcoming including a Yamaha Parliamentary Jazz Scholarship and prizes from the EMI Sound Foundation and MBF Young Talent.

The first thing that strikes the listener upon hearing this recording is the size and fullness of Arcoleo’s tone. His sound has a richness that suggests the playing of a much older man and even allowing for the excellent contributions of his colleagues there’s no mistaking just whose album this is. His writing exhibits a similar maturity, it’s arguably a little derivative at times but impresses just the same. “Beginnings” is an impressive calling card with the promise of even greater things to come.

The album’s eight pieces are all Arcoleo originals beginning with “Dean Road”, a good introduction to Arcoleo’s fluent muscularity. The piece hints at hard bop roots but Arcoloeo has absorbed many other influences and the music sounds thoroughly contemporary. The saxophonist takes the first solo but Neame’s contribution is just as fine, and, as his work with Phronesis has already shown, he has developed in to one of the UK’s best and most adventurous piano soloists. Gourlay and Maddren exhibit the same flexibility and attention to detail that they routinely display in Downes’ groups and elsewhere. Maddren, in particular, is an asset to any recording as discs by Neame, Gwilym Simcock, Jonathan Bratoeff and others have demonstrated.

Solo piano introduces the sinuous and episodic “Nomad’s Land”, a remarkably mature piece of writing with a tricky but memorable theme. Neame’s solo is both expansive and lyrical and Arcoleo displays an astonishing facility on his instrument as his solo probes and needles. Maddren’s colourful, neatly energetic drumming is a joy throughout with his cymbal work particularly impressive.

The gentle balladry of “Glade” sees Arcoleo demonstrating his sensitive side and adopting a breathy, lyrical tone. It’s a master-class in elegance and restraint and the maturity of the saxophonist’s playing is matched by his colleagues with Maddren again impressing, this time with the quality of his brush work.

The title track is presaged by the brief “Intro To Beginnings” with an intimate sax/piano duet later embellished by Maddren’s cymbal splashes and mallet rumbles. This appears to be the calm before the storm as squalling tenor introduces “Beginnings” proper but Arcoleo’s subsequent solo is far more searching and intelligent as he explores the wider range of his instrument underpinned by Maddren’s polyrhytmic drumming. Gourlay steps into the foreground with an inventive, deeply resonant solo as Maddren chatters around him before Arcoleo reasserts himself, eventually resolving the piece with a restatement of the attractive theme.

“Harbinger” is a gutsy saxophone/drum duet (shades of Sonny Rollins perhaps) but the following “Phoenix” begins as a feature for the excellent Neame who interacts thoughtfully with Gourlay and Maddren on the tune’s introduction. The trio make maximum use of space, something that continues even after Arcoleo’s arrival but the saxophonist subtly expands his playing to push the piece forward, gradually filling the gaps with his fluent phrasing. The piece seems to develop exponentially, culminating in a feature for Maddren which develops into a further duet with Arcoloeo suggesting that this and the previous piece are thematically linked. “Phoenix” then resolves itself with an unexpectedly lyrical coda.

The concluding “Kite Flight” is as light and airy as it’s title suggests with both Arcoleo and Neame at their most lyrical. The leader’s tenor positively soars and Neame’s solo is suitably rhapsodic. It’s a delightful way to close a stunningly assured début album.

By contemporary standards “Beginnings” is a relatively short album, clocking in between forty five and fifty minutes but Arcoleo’s writing doesn’t waste a moment and the playing from all four members of the quartet is superb throughout. Immaculate recording also ensures that the listener gets to hear and appreciate every detail, nuance and inflection.

Arcoleo has delivered a startlingly mature and accomplished début and the album title speaks of even greater things to come. In the meantime “Beginnings” is a highly satisfying piece of work in its own right.               
 

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