Nat Birchall Quintet

“Live In Larissa - Divine Harmony in Duende Jazz Bar”“

(Sound Soul And Spirit Records NB 003)

The Mancunian saxophonist Nat Birchall has been a regular presence on the Jazzmann web pages,  usually leading his own groups or else or appearing in the bands of trumpeter Matthew Halsall. Both Birchall and Halsall are contemporary miners of the seam known as “spiritual jazz”, the lengthy modal meditations pioneered by John Coltrane, Alice Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders and others back in the 1960’s. It’s to the credit of both Birchall and Halsall that they are able to introduce a contemporary slant to the proceedings and the music of both men has resonated with 21st century audiences. There is a palpable air of what can only be described as “spirituality” about the music of both these Manchester based artists.

Birchall’s personal spiritual odyssey has been expressed through a series of albums, all superficially similar in style but with each introducing a significant element of artistic advance. These have included “Akhenaten” (2009), “Guiding Spirit” (2010), “Sacred Dimensions” (2011) and “World Without Form” (2012), the last two are reviewed elsewhere on the Jazzmann.

I’ve been lucky enough to see Birchall perform live on several occasions, twice with Halsall’s group (at the Brecon and Moseley festivals) and twice as a leader, both of these performances taking place at the Queens Head in Monmouth. The second of these was in April 2013, just a month before this live double album was recorded at the Duende Jazz Bar in Larissa, Greece.

“Live In Larissa” is the third release on Birchall’s own Sound Soul And Spirit label (earlier releases were on Halsall’s Gondwana imprint) and is available as a double live vinyl LP or digital download only (I was lucky enough to be sent a two disc promotional CD). It features the core quintet that made “World Without Form” such a success with long term collaborator Adam Fairhall (piano) joined by Corey Mwamba on vibes and bells, Nick Blacka on bass, and the great Paul Hession at the drums. This line-up, minus Mwamba, who was unavailable due to a family illness, played a great set at Monmouth, honing their skills for what was obviously an even more memorable night in Greece.

The Duende Jazz Bar is described as a small venue with a tiny stage but the intimacy of the venue obviously brought out the best of the band with the group stretching out at length on some of the “World Without Form” material as well as delivering inspired interpretations of two 1960s/1970s spiritual jazz classics. The first of these is highly appropriate, a piece written by Bill Lee and Clifton Lee simply entitled “John Coltrane” and initially recorded by saxophonist Clifford Jordan on the 1974 album “Glass Bead Games”. Co-writer Bill Lee played bass on the album and, incidentally, is the father of film director Spike Lee.

“John Coltrane”, the track, is a seventeen minute extemporisation that occupies the whole of Side A of the vinyl release. Introduced by Blacka’s bass the modal vamp provides the gateway for an intensely spiritual journey that highlights the virtues of all five musicians. Birchall takes the first solo, strong and authoritative and indisputably Coltrane-esque. He probes assiduously, drinking deep at Coltrane’s spiritual well.
Fairhall has been in the band from the start and is an inspired soloist as well as a skilled accompanist. His playing invokes the inevitable comparisons with the great McCoy Tyner but the imaginative Fairhall brings a great deal of himself to every project he is involved with, including his own “The Imaginary Delta”.
Mwamba is the next to feature, a startlingly physical and imaginative vibes soloist who plays the vibraphone as an “entire instrument rather than a piano substitute”, his own words, spoken to me when I finally caught up with him at another gig in Monmouth. This was in the band of trumpeter Nick Malcolm with whom Mwamba also gave a quite inspired performance.
Mwamba is followed by a passage of solo bass from the supremely flexible Nick Blacka, also of the young contemporary piano trio GoGo Penguin. His deeply resonant playing here is greatly appreciated by the Greek audience. 
Finally we hear from Paul Hession, a veteran of the free jazz scene with the ability to move from   keeping time to free playing almost seamlessly. His solo here is beautifully constructed and innately musical, indeed his playing is full of fascinating detail throughout the set while always remaining subtly propulsive.

Side B expands upon two items from the “World Without Form” album. “Divine Harmony” provides the subtitle for the album and opens with the sound of Birchall’s tenor above Hession’s loosely structured drumming and Mwamba’s chiming vibes. Birchall is credited with bells, shaker and tambourine as well as tenor and soprano saxophones and some of his percussion can be heard as Mwamba solos at the vibes. Hession’s drums act as the bridge into Fairhall’s solo which culminates in a lengthy passage of often beautiful solo piano. Birchall’s music isn’t free jazz per se but the presence of musicians such as Hession, Mwamba and Fairhall has gradually moved his music towards this direction. Much of this rendition is freer than anything Birchall has previously recorded, encouraged no doubt by the live setting.

The title of “Return To Ithaca” was inspired by the writing of Homer and represents an appropriate choice given the Greek setting. It’s dense and intense with Birchall switching to sinuous soprano sax and with group wild card Mwamba producing a feverish solo that embodies both his physicality and adventurousness. Fairhall’s solo is intensely rhythmic with Hession, Blacka and even Birchall’s percussion providing additional rhythmic emphasis. Fairhall matches Mwamba for fire and inventiveness and Birchall fairly tears into his soprano solo as Blacka’s meaty bass and Hession’s tumbling polyrhythms drive the whole ensemble on. The atmosphere in that tiny Greek bar must have been electric, something reflected in the audience reactions to Hession’s solo and the performance as a whole.

Side C begins with “Journey In Satchindananda”, written by Alice Coltrane and with the saxophone part originally played by Pharoah Sanders. Birchall, playing soprano, certainly matches Sanders in terms of intensity and imagination with a passionate but articulate opening solo as he and his Mancunian colleagues expand the tune to double its original length. Fairhall’s ebullient solo is no less inspired and there is also a memorable solo episode from Blacka, whose bass also grounds the whole piece.

As its title suggests “World Without Form” is one of Birchall’s more freely constructed pieces, a composition he describes as being “about beginnings, the point from which creation arises”. Hession is particularly suited to this type of music and clearly relishes the freedom of this group discussion, the dynamics of which range from the declamatory cry of Birchall’s tenor and the percussive rumble of Fairhall’s piano to the shimmer of Mwamba’s vibes in dialogue with Hession’s multi faceted drum sounds. This is perhaps the most challenging piece thus far but the Greek audience respond with considerable enthusiasm.

Also from the “World Without Form” album “Black Ark” reflects Birchall’s early enthusiasm for reggae and dub and is named after the studio of the great reggae producer/sound artist Lee “Scratch” Perry. Although rhythmically simple the piece is powerful and effective with Birchall’s turbo charged tenor backed by by an immense collective rhythmic drive. Mwamba and Fairhall also solo memorably and taken overall this is a hugely exciting group performance.

Birchall goes back to 2011 for the closing piece, the title track from “Sacred Dimension” with its Coltrane-esque tenor incantations above rippling piano arpeggios and Hession’s always eloquent percussive commentary. There’s a wonderfully fragile passage of solo piano plus Fairhall’s subsequent dialogue with the brilliant Hession whose cymbal work is a constant delight. Finally Birchall returns for a final statement of the theme, thus rounding off an inspired double album of extended live performances.

“Live In Larissa” has attracted a compelling amount of critical praise and rightly so. The intimate setting of the Duende Jazz Bar proved to be the ideal space in which to capture the essence of Birchall’s live performance, the Coltrane homages combining with something more adventurous and obviously “free” as the group stretch out, unfettered by the confines of the studio. Birchall has described soloing in this context as being akin to “an out of body experience” and his inspired playing clearly fired the imaginations of the rest of this hugely accomplished group with all the musicians making a hugely significant contribution.

For newcomers to Birchall’s music this perhaps the album to get, a recording that takes the essence of Birchall’s sound and presents it in the context of a live performance with all the opportunities for improvisational freedom that that situation encourages. All Birchall’s recordings are worth hearing, but if you have to restrict yourself to just one recording this might well be it.

I believe Birchall is due to visit Monmouth again in 2015, hopefully with this same group. I’m looking forward to it already, let’s hope that they can re-create something of the spirit of this album at a similarly intimate venue. 

 

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