Strangeness And Charm

“Music For The Book Of Deer by Richard Ingham”

(Largo Music LARG0011)

Richard Ingham – saxophones, wind synthesiser, whistles, bass clarinet
Maarten Verbraeken – trumpet, flugelhorn
Fraser Burke – keyboards, piano accordion
Kenny Irons – basses, acoustic guitar, percussion
Andy James – drums, percussion

Released in October 2020 “Music For The Book Of Deer” is a limited edition CD featuring music written by saxophonist Richard Ingham and performed by his five piece group Strangeness And Charm.

The work was inspired by the tenth century Aberdeenshire portable gospel book “The Book Of Deer” and is a twelve part suite written to represent musical images of the book itself and also of the monastery at Deer and its local working community.

The Book of Deer is one of Scotland’s most important manuscripts, equally famous for its gospel extracts and for the Gaelic insertions written two centuries later. These insertions give an insight into land grants and the workings of society in North East Scotland at the time, and are the earliest surviving examples of Gaelic literature in Scotland. The book is housed in the library of the University of Cambridge.

The album appears on the Fife based Largo Music imprint, the main outlet for Ingham, a saxophonist, composer, conductor and educator. Reading between the lines I perceive him to be the father of trombonist Rory Ingham and violinist / vocalist Dominic Ingham, each of whom have featured extensively on the Jazzmann web pages, both as solo artists and as part of the group Bonsai (the band previously known as Jam Experiment).

Richard Ingham occupies a musical area that embraces both jazz and contemporary classical music. His career as a performer, composer and educator is extensive and dates back for some forty years.
A full overview of his musical activities can be found at his website http://www.saxingham.com

The quintet Strangeness And Charm is an outlet for Ingham’s jazz leanings and the group recorded a self titled EP of original music in 2014. The band has performed at a number of jazz festivals and its repertoire also includes material by such famous jazz composers as Pat Metheny, Michael Brecker, Chick Corea, John Scofield and Mike Mainieri.

Ingham’s suite was commissioned by the Book Of Deer Project and was first performed at the 2014 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The work subsequently received a Made in Scotland Award from the arts body Creative Scotland.

Strangeness And Charm finally recorded “Music For The Book Of Deer” in February 2020, performing the twelve part suite in its entirety, but also punctuating it with three brief pieces of “Marginalia”, effectively ‘bonus tracks’. The music is wide ranging, embracing jazz, plainsong, traditional Celtic folk and even electronica.

The suite commences with “The Light of Columba”. The monastery at Deer was founded by St. Columba and St. Drostan and the music here depicts the arrival of the religious community, initially through the tolling of bells. Saxophone and almost piercingly high trumpet blaze together in a refection of the saintly glory of Columba himself. This introductory fanfare also includes a dramatic performance from drummer Andy James.

The title of “Cathal’s Banquet” pays homage to a local nobleman who gave banquets to one hundred members of the local populace every Christmas and Easter. The music retains a folk feel with Ingham featuring on whistle and is written in the form of a gigue, a dance popular during the Renaissance and Baroque periods.

Columba and Drostan came to Deer from another monastery at Aberdour. Columba decided to leave the new monastery to Drostan and the latter’s tears (or ‘dera’)  as the two saints parted helped to give the monastery its name,  On the piece “St. Drostan of Deer” Ingham’s unaccompanied saxophone approximates the cadences of plainsong, subsequently joined by the sounds of Verbraeken’s trumpet and later by keyboard, deeply resonant bowed bass and the rustle of percussion.

“This Splendid Little Book” takes its title from a phrase used by one of the scribes at the end of “The Book of Deer”. The message reads; “Be it on the conscience of anyone who reads this splendid little book that they say a prayer for the soul of the wretch who wrote it”.
Musically the piece is less rooted in mediaeval or church music than its immediate predecessors and is more recognisable as ‘Gaelic’ or ‘Celtic’ folk with Ingham’s sax blowing a slow air above an underlying pipe like drone, before embarking on more lively jig and reel variations,.  The music is therefore evocative and invigorating by turns.

“Marginalia 1” is the first of the three ‘bonus’ tracks. At a mere twelve seconds in duration it represents the daintiest of musical morsels, a brief, presumably improvised, snippet featuring the sounds of trumpet and percussion.

We move swiftly on to the next movement of the suite, “Song of the River Bend”. The original monastery was situated on a spectacular bend on the South Ugie river, which is mentioned in the texts. Again the melody is derived from plainsong and the performance includes a further arco bass drone and another dramatic percussive commentary from James.

“Marginalia 2”  is precisely one second longer than its similarly titled predecessor, this time sounding like an extract from one of the longer plainsong based pieces.

“Charlie’s Rant” represents Ingham’s imagined music for a celebration in one of the local Pictish villages. This is the liveliest, most exuberant piece so far with Irons’ electric bass and Burke’s electric piano coming to the fore. These bring a jazz feel to the music, alongside the tricky twists and turns of the reels negotiated by Ingham’s sax.  Meanwhile Verbraeken’s trumpet and James’ percussion even add a smattering of Latin flavourings to an already busily bubbling pot.

“Aikey Brae” is named for a local stone circle that pre-dates the monastery by some three thousand years. Its mysteries are expressed via eerie soundscapes featuring trumpet and electronics, this ‘free jazz meets electronica section’ later succeeded by something more groove orientated with Burke’s electric piano and Irons’ electric bass leading the way. Verbraeken returns with a fluent trumpet solo that suggests the influence of Miles Davis, this leading to a series of exchanges with Ingham’s slippery soprano sax. James also features strongly with a closing solo drum feature.

A companion to the earlier “This Splendid Little Book” the track “A Prayer for the Soul of the Wretch Who Wrote It” heralds the return of the Scribe. As befits the weightiness of the title the music is suitably dramatic, rousing and uncompromising, a return to the worlds of drone, free jazz and the evocative use of percussion. Strangeness And Charm create an imposing edifice of sound, with Verbraeken’s trumpet breaking through the murk.

Trumpet also features prominently on “A Monastery Among the People”. Verbraeken begins by playing a plainsong style melody unaccompanied.  In time his elegant playing is drawn into a call and response section involving other members of the group, notably Burke’s keyboard. Irons and James then establish a funky groove, based upon a tweed ‘waulking’ song,  that forms the basis for a further series of exchanges involving trumpet, sax and electric piano. The pace of the music gradually accelerates as the instrumental trading becomes even more animated. With the ‘waulking’ process eventually finished the piece plays out in the same elegant, plainsong style that it began. Definitely a composition of contrasts.

The phrase “As Far as the Birch Tree” is used in the Gaelic text to describe a parcel of land. Harp like sounds combine with whistle to create a genuinely mediaeval feel, before the piece mutates into a jazz waltz featuring the soloing of Burke on electric piano.

“Dancing In The Margin” takes its title from the cartoons that appear in the margins of The Book of Deer. Although apparently random they actually serve to illustrate and highlight important phrases in the text.
The composition combines a lively folk style jig with jazz style soloing as Verbraeken on trumpet and Ingham on soprano sax joyously exchange phrases above a rollicking groove. Burke also stretches out with a jazzy electric piano solo before the jig returns, if anything even more energetically than before.

“Marginalia 3” extends to a full twenty seconds, a further brief snippet of droning electronics plus percussion.

Finally we hear “Still Shining”, the title a celebration of Columba’s legacy. The music features the sound of Miles Davis style muted trumpet above a clipped drum/bass/Rhodes groove, which subsequently fades away to leave a gentle fanfare of trumpet and saxophone, and finally the sounds of the bells that opened up the suite some fifty minutes ago.

With its broad mix of styles “Music For The Book Of Deer” isn’t a jazz album as such, although it does embrace significant jazz elements. Nevertheless it represents interesting and distinctive listening, drawing as it does on so many different styles of music. In the early stages I was reminded of a jazzier version of Gryphon, although that comparison seemed to become less apt as the album progressed and yet more new ingredients,  were added.

I have to admit to never having heard of The Book Of Deer before receiving this album, so I’m grateful to Ingham for broadening my education, as well as for presenting an intriguing listening experience. Everybody performs well, with drummer / percussionist James delivering a particularly impressive performance as he and Irons respond to the rhythmic vagaries of Ingham’s diverse and eclectic writing.
Verbraeken and Burke both impress with their versatility and it would be interesting to hear the trumpeter in a more straightforward jazz context. Likewise Ingham himself, although his music in general appears to be more centred on the classical sphere. I have to admit that Irons is the only musician here whose playing I was previously familiar with, this in due to his stint with the Yorkshire based Revelator Blues Band many years ago.

“Music For The Book Of Deer” offers much to enjoy and is an album that is likely to reveal fresh insights on each subsequent listening. But, again, this is music that would perhaps be best appreciated in the live environment.  I understand that the Edinburgh Fringe Festival show saw images from the Book projected behind the players to create an immersive audio-visual experience. Perhaps this is something that Strangeness And Charm will be able to repeat when the Covid pandemic finally eases.

“Music For The Book Of Deer” is available from http://www.largo-music.co.uk

 

blog comments powered by Disqus