Rob Luft

“Life is the Dancer”

(Edition Records EDN1152)

Rob Luft – guitar, vocals, Joe Wright – tenor saxophone, Joe Webb – piano, Hammond organ,
Tom McCredie – electric bass, Corrie Dick – drums

Guests;
Byron Wallen – trumpet, Luna Cohen – vocals

“Life is the Dancer” is the keenly anticipated second solo release from the hugely talented guitarist, composer and occasional vocalist Rob Luft. It represents the follow up to the widely acclaimed “Riser” (2017), also released on Edition Records.

My review of “Riser” can be viewed here;
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/rob-luft-riser

For this sophomore release Luft retains the services of the quintet that appeared on the first album, whilst also adding guests Byron Wallen (trumpet) and Luna Cohen (vocals) on two of the album’s ten tracks.

A genuine rising star in the UK jazz firmament Luft, now twenty six, is a regular award winner, including the 2016 Kenny Wheeler Jazz Prize, which helped to finance the recording of “Riser”. More recently he has been selected as a BBC Radio 3 New Generations Artist, following in the footsteps of such musicians as pianist Gwilym Simcock, trumpeter Laura Jurd and bassist Misha Mullov-Abbado.

A former member of the National Youth Jazz Orchestra (NYJO) Luft studied at London’s Royal Academy of Music and was a member of the Academy’s Big Band. He has since developed into an astonishingly versatile and creative musician who is greatly in demand as a sideman and collaborator.

In addition to leading his own band Luft has worked with an impressive range of musicians, among them multi-instrumentalists Adam Glasser and Felix Jay,  vocalists Elina Duni, Alice Zawadzki, Joy Ellis and Luna Cohen, saxophonists Dave O’Higgins, Rob Cope and Phil Meadows, bassist Misha Mullov-Abbado, trumpeters Byron Wallen and Laura Jurd, violinist Faith Brackenbury, cellist Shirley Smart and drummers Phelan Burgoyne and Enzo Zirilli.  

He is also part of the tango group Deco Ensemble and of the co-operative quartet Big Bad Wolf, whose 2017 début “Pond Life” is reviewed here;
http://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/big-bad-wolf-pond-life/

He has also performed with Snowpoet, the group co-led by vocalist and lyricist Lauren Kinsella and multi-instrumentalist and composer Chris Hyson.

In June 2019 I was privileged to see a performance by Luft’s working band,  featuring Webb, Wright, McCredie and Dick at a near sold out show at The Hive in Shrewsbury, an event hosted by Shrewsbury Jazz Network. This young quintet dazzled the audience with the quality of their playing in a performance consisting of wholly original material, mainly sourced from “Riser”, but also including a couple of items from this new record. I have to say that this was one of the best shows that I have ever seen at this venue, with the young quintet earning themselves a terrific reception from the knowledgeable Shrewsbury audience. My account of that memorable evening can be found here;
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/rob-luft-band-the-hive-music-media-centre-shrewsbury-08-06-2019

The phrase “Life is The Dancer and you are the Dance”  is sourced from the book “The Power of Now” by the motivational author and spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle. 
“I think that idea is a beautiful sentiment”, explains Luft, “and I think the album title of ‘Life Is The Dancer’ suits my record, as the new compositions have something very bright, positive and dance-like in them. This warmth & energy is what I want people to feel when they listen to my music. The message is essentially: the past is in your head and the present is in your hands”.

As a composer and player Luft has absorbed a “manifold” array of influences sourced from a broad range of jazz, rock, folk and world music. He has distilled these inspirations into a style that is already very much his own. It’s a rare and precious thing for such a young musician, and particularly a guitarist, to have already established such a personal, and instantly recognisable, sound.

Not that Luft is a one trick pony, “Life is the Dancer” explores a wide variety of styles, colours and textures but does so in a way that feels thoroughly organic and natural, there’s nothing that sounds remotely forced and contrived. The guitarist receives excellent support from his similarly versatile and intelligent band, while his two guests also make telling contributions.

The album commences with the only piece not to feature Luft as a composer. “Berlin” was one of the pieces played at Shrewsbury last year and was written by the Danish bassist Anders Christensen. It represents a compelling homage to the techno music of that city, and to these ears to the Berlin of “Low” era David Bowie / Brian Eno. The motorik style beats also seem to honour the ‘krautrock’ of Neu! and Kraftwerk. McCredie and Dick lay down an implacable groove (I’m also reminded of Pat Metheny’s “Are You Going With Me?”), while Luft provides the soaring and swirling guitar atmospherics and Webb provides a humanising element on acoustic piano. The piece becomes increasingly dynamic as it progresses with Luft’s guitar spiralling to the outer limits as Dick becomes increasingly forceful and animated behind the kit. It’s an attention grabbing opener, and one that is also likely to hold considerable appeal to adventurous rock listeners, particularly fans of the bands listed above, and of Robert Fripp and King Crimson too.

The episodic title track combines Luft’s love of West African music with a Metheny style lyricism. The chiming cadences of the leader’s guitar are teamed with Cohen’s wordless vocals and the flexible rhythms of McCredie and Dick, with horns and keyboards adding further colour and texture. As the piece gathers momentum there’s a fluent trumpet solo from guest Byron Wallen as Dick again becomes increasingly active at the drums. Wallen and Luft recently collaborated on Felix Jay’s triple CD “Trio” and this performance continues their fertile musical relationship. Luft is a master of technology and uses his effects with great intelligence and imagination. Here he adopts a sound not entirely dissimilar to Metheny’s synclavier guitar, but it’s skilfully woven into the fabric of the arrangement, particularly with regard to the interaction with trumpet and drums.

“All Ways Moving” is one of several shorter tracks that act as interludes or “palette cleansers” between some of the more substantial pieces. This one features the beguiling combination of Luft’s guitar, again making judicious use of his range of effects, and Wright’s tenor. With McCredie and Dick offering characteristically intelligent support this is a piece that squeezes a lot of information into its two and a half minutes, with a strong focus on both melody and dynamics.

Saxophonist Wright also features strongly on “One Day in Romentino” as he and Luft float above a skittering, hip hop influenced drum groove. The combination of Luft’s pointillist guitar and Wright’s longer tenor sax melody lines evoke a real sense of joyousness, before the music breaks off into something more fragmented and harder edged, with Wright now probing more deeply on tenor. Again there’s an admirable degree of variation within a comparatively short amount of running time, in this instance a little under four and a half minutes.

As its name suggests “Tanpura” exhibits a distinct Indian influence, its droning, ambient serenity punctuated by the rustle of Dick’s percussion as Luft briefly approximates the sound of a sitar.

“Synesthesia” was one of the pieces performed at Shrewsbury and represented something of a set highlight.   The piece was co-written by Luft and the Turin born, London based drummer Enzo Zirilli, leader of the Zirobop quartet with which Luft plays. Given Zirilli’s involvement it’s perhaps not totally surprisingly that the piece is rhythmically complex, with all members of the group contributing to the busy lattice of interlocking rhythm and melody lines. Within this framework space exists for a sparkling solo from Webb at the piano, but once again this is a multi-faceted group performance and a composition that explores a wide range of styles and dynamics.

The two minute “Other Wise” represents another charming interlude, here combining ambient guitar sounds with snatches of tenor sax melody and the jaunty click and rustle of Dick’s percussion.

“Snow Country”  effortlessly combines attractive melodies with rhythmic complexity as Luft evocatively combines a variety of guitar sounds. The piece also features another compelling performance from Joe Wright, who was arguably under-utilised at Shrewsbury but who shows up strongly throughout this album.

The penultimate “Sad Stars” has a folkish, song like quality about it with Luft’s guitar combining with Wright’s plaintive tenor and Webb’s gospel tinged Hammond. At times the organist sounds as if he’s just blown in from a 1960s Bob Dylan session for “Highway 61 Revisited” or “Blonde on Blonde”.

The album closes with “Expect the Unexpected”, another piece played at Shrewsbury, and something of a manifesto for Luft’s remarkable music. The piece was originally a London Jazz Festival commission and this recorded version also features the contributions of Wallen on plaintive, Miles-ian trumpet and Cohen on wordless vocals.
A lengthy introductory passage features the combination of Wallen’s lonely trumpet ring, Luft’s looped and layered guitar and the rustle of percussion. Sax and keys add splashes of colour before the music enters a more freely structured episode, this then morphing into a more obviously written section featuring the leader’s guitar and the combination of Cohen and Luft’s wordless vocals. The guitarist also sings on the Big Bad Wolf recording, and one suspects that Lionel Loueke, another guitarist who frequently features his own vocals, may represent another significant influence.

Influences aside, “Life is the Dancer” constitutes another excellent statement from Luft and the album represents a very worthy follow up to the much praised “Riser”.

Reviews of this album have been universally positive and have often spoken of its ‘joyousness’. For me, the “warmth and energy” of which Luft has spoken is manifestly present in these outstanding group performances.

Luft’s music, with its myriad range of influences, and its frequent changes of style and direction, is difficult to describe or to analyse, but is is consistently interesting and unfailingly beguiling. Memorable melodies combine with often complex rhythms and arrangements, while Luft’s mastery of the guitar and its associated range of effects is thoroughly captivating throughout. There’s a lustrous quality about his sound that is often beautiful and always thoroughly spellbinding. Even at such a young age (in jazz terms) he never sounds like anybody other than himself, my occasional comparisons notwithstanding.

As alluded to previously Luft receives excellent support from his regular band, an exceptional quintet featuring some of the UK’s most imaginative and versatile young jazz musicians. The two guests also make significant contributions, particularly trumpet master Byron Wallen.

Rob Luft is a musician who has quickly endeared himself to British jazz audiences thanks to his consummate skills as a guitarist and composer. He’s also a genuinely nice guy,  whose humility and obvious love and enthusiasm for the music communicates itself well to the public. Thanks to Edition’s international distribution he’s making quite a name for himself in mainland Europe too. Rob Luft looks set to become a major presence on the international jazz scene for many years to come.

 

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