Loz Speyer’s Inner Space

“Live in Leipzig”

(Spherical Records SPR007)

Loz Speyer – trumpet, flugelhorn, Dee Byrne – alto sax, Xhosa Cole – tenor sax, Larry Bartley – double bass, Gary Willcox- drums, percussion

“Live in Leipzig” is the third album release from London based trumpeter, composer and improviser Loz Speyer’s Inner Space Project.

Speyer is a musician who has been on my personal musical radar for a long time. I first saw him play at a jazz festival in Leamington Spa around the turn of the century leading a quartet featuring guitarist Andy Jones, bassist Richard Jeffries and New York born drummer Tony Bianco, the latter now best known as a free jazz player.  I seem to recall that this was an open air gig that took place on a stage in Jephson Gardens.

I was impressed enough to purchase the quartet’s 1999 album “Two Kinds of Blue” which was released on 33 Jazz. Although more ‘straight-ahead than some of Speyer’s later output it still makes for enjoyable and absorbing listening with Jones’s guitar bringing a welcome rock edge to the proceedings. Speyer’s compositions also draw on elements of Celtic folk music. It’s an album that I’ve enjoyed playing again recently alongside this current release and it still sounds fresh, exciting and thoroughly convincing.

Since those days The Jazzmann has given favourable reviews to both of Speyer’s Inner Space albums. The first of these was “Five Animal Dances”, released in 2009 under the band name Inner Space Music. Treading a fine line between composition and improvisation the album featured an exceptional quartet that included Chris Biscoe (reeds), Julie Walkington ( bass) and the great Sebastian Rochford (drums). My review of this recording can be found here;
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/inner-space-music-five-animal-dances

In 2017 the album “Life On The Edge” introduced a new band name and a different line up. Now known as Loz Speyer’s Inner Space the group was now a quintet with Speyer and Biscoe (alto sax and alto clarinet) joined in the front line by Rachel Musson (tenor & soprano saxophones). The rhythm section was now comprised of Olie Brice on double bass and Gary Willcox at the drum kit. Once again there was a good balance between composition and improvisation with the new group delivering a brand of music that I described at the time as being “challenging, yet distinctive and accessible”. The full review can be found here;
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/loz-speyers-inner-space-life-on-the-edge

In addition to the two Inner Space recordings The Jazzmann has also reviewed two albums by Speyer’s other band Time Zone, a group that explores the links between European jazz and improv and the rhythms of Cuban music. Speyer’s wife is Cuban and he has spent much time travelling between London and Santiago de Cuba, crossing boundaries but building bridges.  For the 2011 Time Zone release “Crossing The Line” Speyer was joined by the London based musicians Martin Hathaway (alto sax, bass clarinet), Stefano Kalonaris (guitar and tres), Davide Mantovani (double bass), Simon Pearson (drums) and Maurizio Ravalico (congas and percussion).
Review here; 
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/time-zone-crossing-the-line

The second Time Zone album “Clave Sin Embargo” (2019), the title roughly translating as “keys without restrictions”,  saw Speyer continuing to refine his approach in the company of an amended line up featuring  Martin Hathaway – alto sax, bass clarinet, Stuart Hall – guitar, Dave Manington – double bass, Maurizio Ravalico – congas and Andy Ball – drums. It just about gets the nod as my favourite Time Zone album and is reviewed here;
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/loz-speyers-time-zone-clave-sin-embargo

Other projects with which Speyer has been involved include the eleven piece London based collective Rare Mix and Proyecto Evocacion, an octet that represents a spin off from the Time Zone project and which features Speyer playing with an otherwise all Cuban ensemble, including a veritable battery of percussionists.

Meanwhile 2023 saw the release of “Open Territory”, an entirely improvised set recorded in 2010/11 and credited to Freetrio, a group featuring Speyer on trumpet and flugel alongside bassist Olly Blanchflower and the late drummer Tony Marsh (1939-2012).

Returning now to the Inner Space Project and the latest edition of the band which features Speyer alongside alto saxophonist Dee Byrne, tenor saxophonist Xhosa Cole, bassist Larry Bartley and the faithful Willcox at the drums.

In December 2023 the band was invited to play a concert as part of a jazz series being held at Mediencampus Villa Ida in Leipzig, Germany. The performance, on 16th December, was very well received by the live audience and was also recorded by Neil Rupsch. The resultant album was then mixed and mastered by the estimable Alex Bonney.

“Live in Leipzig” features five new compositions from Speyer and includes two items from his “Jazz Portraits” series of compositions, pieces that are dedicated to the memories of late, great jazz musicians. Speyer describes these pieces as featuring “composed elements that frame extended forms for improvisation”. It’s an approach that characterises much of his writing for Inner Space, a project that first began back in 2002.

On 14th September 2024 I enjoyed a live performance by Inner Space at Clun Valley Jazz in Bishop’s Castle, Shropshire. On this occasion Xhosa Cole was replaced on tenor sax by Josephine Davies, who slotted in seamlessly as the quintet performed all of the pieces on “Live in Leipzig” in addition to further material, this including two more of Speyer’s “Jazz Portraits”. I’ll review the Leipzig recording first before coming back to take a further brief look at the Bishop’s Castle gig.

“Live in Leipzig” commences with the Speyer composition “Changes”, which also opened the show at Clun Valley. Speyer describes this opening tune as being about “starting out searching, looking for ways forward”. The music of Inner Space is most obviously influenced by that of Ornette Coleman, as Speyer readily acknowledges, but he has also mentioned the inspiration of  Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk, and Steve Lacey, traces of whom can all be detected in Inner Space’s music.  Meanwhile Steve Day’s liner notes for “Life On The Edge” also made reference to the Dewey Redman Quartet and the Art Ensemble of Chicago (particularly with reference to the three horn front line).

“Changes” commences with fanfare like horn chorales as Bartley and Willcox establish a loose limbed polyrhythmic flow that provides the necessary momentum for the resultant interplay between the horns and the subsequent improvised solos, with Speyer going first, followed by Byrne and Cole, two younger players who have already established impressive reputations for themselves at the more exploratory end of the jazz spectrum. Together with fellow saxophonist Cath Roberts Byrne is the co-founder of the Lume musicians’ collective and record label, an organisation with an admirable track record on the contemporary jazz and experimental scene. Cole has cut his improv teeth as a guest with Black Top, the pioneering electro-improvising duo consisting of pianist Pat Thomas and vibraphonist Orphy Robinson. The two saxophonists combine brilliantly throughout the set, both with each other and in conjunction with the leader’s trumpet and flugel.

The first of Speyer’s “Jazz Portraits” is “Innate Ornette”, a tribute to Inner Space’s primary influence. A free-wheeling thirteen minute performance sounds suitably ‘Coleman-esque’ and incorporates the fluid rhythmic interplay that characterises this group, with Bartley in the Charlie Haden role. Again the piece is notable for the vibrant and colourful interaction of the horns, in addition to more exploratory solo episodes featuring Byrne, Cole and Speyer. The horn soloists also interact closely with drummer Willcox, who shadows and supports them with energy, empathy and conviction.

The second item in the “Jazz Portraits” series is “Chimes for Grimes”, Speyer’s dedication to the late, great bassist (and sometime violinist) Henry Grimes (1935-2020), a seminal figure on the US free jazz scene in the 1960s. Grimes then dropped out of music altogether throughout the 1970s, 80s and 90s, eventually returning to active playing in the early 2000s. Speyer was privileged to play with him in New York City in 2007 as half of a trumpet / double bass duo. Meanwhile The Jazzmann enjoyed a performance featuring Grimes at the 2009 Cheltenham Jazz Festival. Here Grimes played both bass and violin with the Profound Sound Trio, a group that also featured American drummer Andrew Cyrille and the British saxophonist Paul Dunmall.
As befits a piece dedicated to a bass player “Chimes for Grimes” commences with an extended unaccompanied double bass excursion from the excellent Larry Bartley, one of the great unsung heroes of British jazz and a bandleader in his own right. Bartley’s bass, in conjunction with Willcox’s consistently inventive drumming,  continues to power the piece following the entry of horns. There’s a celebratory quality about the horn chorales as the band pays homage to Grimes’ extraordinary life and his musical ‘second coming’. As ever the piece acts as a vehicle for individual improvising with Cole leading off the solos on tenor, followed by Byrne on alto and Speyer on trumpet. There’s a free-wheeling fluency about these individual episodes, the solo statements punctuated by passages of fiery interaction between the horns.

“I Weep for Your People as for Mine” was inspired by a chance meeting at an airport between Speyer, who has family in Israel, and a Palestinian woman with family in Gaza. The composition laments “the terrible events that began last October” and the music is suitably sombre and dolorous, yet also strangely beautiful. It demonstrates a gentler and more sensitive side of an improvising quintet that has previously been pretty much ‘full on’. The horns relinquish their stridency and are more subdued while Willcox deploys brushes almost throughout. The individual horn solos are thoughtful and meditative, with the occasional collective squall expressing Speyer’s anger and concern at the ongoing situation in the Middle East.

The recording concludes on a happier note with the cleverly titled “Rhythm Changes Time”, a piece that Speyer describes as being “in celebratory Jazz old school, with more than a touch of dry humour”. The music owes more to conventional swing and bebop but is still filtered through Inner Space’s Ornette shaped prism. There’s a joyous quality about the triple horn intro with Speyer, Byrne and Cole coming on like a mini big band. Fuelled by the propulsive rhythms of Bartley and Willcox the horn players deliver exuberant individual solos and engage in vibrant instrumental interplay. Cole’s tenor honks and hollers, Byrne’s alto is sharp and incisive and the leader’s trumpet suitably whimsical. The performance also includes an extended drum feature from the impressive Willcox.

The album makes for highly enjoyable listening and captures the Inner Space quintet at the top of their game, delivering music at the cusp of structure and improvisation and striking just the balance between the two. It’s a balance that defines the very best jazz as Speyer and his colleagues pay homage to a particular strand of the jazz tradition whilst very much putting their own contemporary stamp on it.

The “Live in Leipzig” album offers more than fifty minutes of music and represents highly recommended listening. The Bishop’s Castle show, presented over the course of two sets offered even more, but as I attended that event as a paying customer I do not intend to carry out a fully detailed review.

In addition to the five album tracks we also head two more of Speyer’s “Jazz Portraits”. As the trumpeter explained he likes his titles in this series to rhyme so we heard “Mixin’ For Dixon”, a tribute to Speyer’s fellow trumpeter and all round musical maverick Bill Dixon (1925-2010), a musician who refused to play the music industry game. There was also “Sun The One, Ra The Far”, a tribute to Sun Ra (1914-93). Speyer briefly met Sun Ra in the late 1980s at an Arkestra show at Brixton Academy and had also seen an earlier Arkestra performance in New York City. He later got to know saxophonist Marshall Allen, who took over the Arkestra following Ra’s death and who is still going strong at the age of ninety nine!

Other pieces included the recent composition “Gemstones” (or “Gem’s Tones”) and the much older “Quinta de los Molinos”, a piece dating back to the “Five Animal Dances” album.

Musically all of these items were delivered in Inner Space’s Coleman inspired house style and featured more colourful group interplay allied to further inspired individual soloing.

My thanks to Loz Speyer and Dee Byrne for speaking with me after the show and to Loz for the gift of a copy of the “Open Territory” album alluded to above, an intriguing set of five fully improvised pieces that features some excellent playing from all three protagonists and which acts as a belated but welcome memorial to the late Tony Marsh.

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