Rob Luft Quartet, Music Spoken Here, The Marr’s Bar, Worcester, 27/03/2025.

Rob Luft – guitar, Joe Wright – tenor saxophone, Tom McCredie – electric bass, Corrie Dick – drums, percussion

It’s taken a while, but after nearly three years since its inception the Music Spoken Here series of events presented by promoter Dave Fuller at The Marr’s Bar in Worcester finally seems to have taken off.

The word is out about the sheer quality of music on offer in a richly varied series that pledges to bring “the best jazz, funk, soul and fusion to Worcester” and to “connect you with exceptional live music experiences in the West Midlands”.

Tonight’s performance by London based guitarist and composer Rob Luft and his quartet certainly delivered on those promises and once again a large and supportive crowd was out in force to enjoy the music.

2025 has started superbly for MSH with every event since the turn of the year well attended, even those featuring artists that the members of the audience may not have previously heard of or know much about. The growing MSH membership has learned to trust Dave’s judgement and has become increasingly confident in the fact that every performance will deliver high quality music. Frequently it’s music in a jazz style that’s not often heard at other local jazz clubs, Music Spoken Here really does offer something unique and exciting.

Tonight’s act offered ample evidence of this. Guitarist and composer Rob Luft is one of the hottest properties in British jazz, a guitarist and composer with an international reputation who has been involved in prestigious recording projects with Scandinavian jazz artists such as the great Norwegian bassist and composer Arild Andersen. Together with the Danish drummer Daniel Sommer Andersen and Luft released the superb trio album “As Time Passes” on the Danish label April Records in 2024. The album attracted a compelling amount of critical acclaim and my review of this recording can be found here.
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/arild-andersen-daniel-sommer-rob-luft-as-time-passes

Another alliance featuring Luft’s playing is a second Anglo-Scandinavian trio featuring Norwegian bassist and vocalist Ellen Andrea Wang, of the group Pixel, and Danish drummer Jon Falt, the latter perhaps best known for his work with the Swedish pianist and composer Bobo Stenson. Their brilliant album “Closeness” (2020) also enjoyed an excellent critical reception and found its way onto many people’s ‘Best of Year’ lists.

Together with his life partner, the Swiss-Albanian vocalist and songwriter Elina Duni, Luft has released two albums for the prestigious German label ECM Records, these being “Lost Ships” (2020) and “A Time to Remember” (2023). Both of these recordings were also very well received and my review of “Lost Ships” can be found here;
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/elina-duni-rob-luft-lost-ships

Luft is undoubtedly a major talent but as impressive as the above recordings are his musical ‘bread and butter’ remains the long running quintet that features on his three albums as a leader for the British label Edition Records. “Riser” (2017) and “Life is the Dancer” (20200 are both reviewed elsewhere on this site as is a superb live performance by the quintet at The Hive venue in Shrewsbury in June 2019. Luft’s latest quintet release is “Dahab Days” (2023) which, like its predecessors, has enjoyed a terrific reception from the critics and the jazz public alike.

The quintet albums embrace a very contemporary sound and place the focus on Luft’s original writing but his playing can be heard in a more straight-ahead context in the quintet that he co-leads with saxophonist Dave O’Higgins, a musician from an older generation but hardly one that could yet be described as a ‘veteran’. Luft and O’Higgins first met when Luft was a member of the National Youth Jazz Orchestra (NYJO) and O’Higgins was one of his tutors. The pair struck up a strong musical rapport and have since recorded two albums together, “Play Monk & Trane” (2019) and “Pluto” (2022). The latter features the pair’s original compositions, but these are written very much in the spirit of the ‘tradition’ and are very different to Luft’s writing for his own quintet.

A former winner of the Kenny Wheeler Jazz Prize (which helped to finance the recording of “Riser”) Luft has also been a BBC New Generations Jazz Artist.  A 2016 graduate of the Jazz Course at the Royal Academy of Music (where his course mates included one Jacob Collier) he studied classical violin and mandolin before switching to the guitar, a move inspired by hearing outstanding guitarists such as Frank Zappa ans Allan Holdsworth. Luft also cites the influence of such British guitar heroes as John McLaughlin and Jeff Beck and also credits Bill Frisell, Pat Metheny, Lee Ritenour and Terje Rypdal as further sources of inspiration.

Besides leading his own band Luft is a much sought after sideman whose numerous collaborations span both genres and generations. Those with whom I have seen or heard him play include trumpeters Byron Wallen and Laura Jurd, violinist Faith Brackenbury, multi-instrumentalists Felix Jay and Fred Thomas, violinist / vocalist Alice Zawadzki,  saxophonists Rob Cope and Martin Speake, drummers Phelan Burgoyne, Enzo Zirilli and Corrie Dick, bassist Misha Mullov-Abbado, and harmonica / keyboard player Adam Glasser.  He has also been a member of the collaborative quintet Big Bad Wolf and of the large ensembles Patchwork Jazz Orchestra, Royal Academy of Music Big Band and the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra. 

Others with whom he has worked are pianist / vocalists Joy Ellis and Lianne Carol, vocalists Karen Lane and Luna Cohen, saxophonists John Surman and Tom Ridout,  keyboard player Django Bates, trumpeter Arve Henriksen, drummer Manu Katche, accordionist Bartosz Glowacki, the tango quintet Deco Ensemble and the nu jazz outfit Cinematic Orchestra.

The 2025 Bath Jazz Weekend saw Luft performing as part of Molecatcher, a new ‘chamber jazz’  trio led by saxophonist Iain Ballamy and also featuring Conor Chaplin on electric bass. It will be interesting to see how this project develops and my account of Molecatcher’s performance can be fond as part of my BJW coverage here;
https://www.thejazzmann.com/features/article/fifth-annual-bath-jazz-weekend-widcombe-social-club-bath-saturday-4th-january-2025

For his first ever visit to Worcester Luft was accompanied by four of the five members of his regular group, Joe Wright on tenor saxophone, Tom McCredie on electric bass and Corrie Dick, a previous visitor to the Marr’s Bar with his own “Sun Swells” sextet (a group that also included Wright), at the drums. Keyboard player Joe Webb, a rising star in his own right and the leader of his own groups was regrettably absent, but with Webb usually busy elsewhere most of the Luft group’s shows are played in the quartet format these days so there was nothing particularly unusual about this.

The quartet’s programme included music from “Dahab Days”, “Life Is The Dancer” and “Riser” in addition to freshly written material that Luft hopes to record for a new album later in the year. Many of these pieces were receiving their ‘world premieres’ in Worcester. There were also innovative arrangements of compositions by Duke Ellington, Krzysztof Komeda and Bill Frisell.

Unaccompanied guitar introduced the opening “One Day In Romentino”, a Luft composition from the “Life Is The Dancer” album. One of the most distinctive aspects of Luft’s playing is his masterful deployment of a whole range effects, these adding colour and texture to the music, it’s a quasi-orchestral approach that adds depth and substance to the group sound. Crucial to the success of the music is the interplay between Luft’s guitar and Wright’s tenor and also the contrast between Luft’s luminous, technology enhanced guitar and the harsher, harder edged sound of Wright’s sax. Equally vital is the presence of Dick behind the kit, one of the most intelligent and imaginative drummers on the UK jazz scene. McCredie is an undemonstrative presence who appears content to take part of the ‘bottom end’, a task that involves navigating some pretty tricky electric bass lines. This opening piece featured Wright’s sax melodies above a shimmering backdrop, this followed by a fluent, Metheny-esque solo from the leader followed by a further tenor excursion from Wright.

From “Riser” Luft’s composition “Beware” is dedicated to Byron Wallen and was notable for its unison guitar and sax melody lines and Dick’s inventive deployment of a range of small percussive devices. Centred around a catchy melodic hook the performance also included solos from both Wright and Luft.

The recently composed “Komorebi” took its title from a Japanese word translating as “sunlight filtered through trees” and was inspired by the recent beautiful spring weather. This was a piece that was both vibrant and beautiful and which gathered an impressive momentum, this helping to fuel powerful solos from Luft and Wright, the latter really tearing it up towards the close and adding an element of wilful dissonance.

Luft is a restlessly creative musician and the next item was a freshly minted arrangement of the Duke Ellington composition “Come Sunday” that Luft had created just a few days before the gig, taking inspiration from a recording of the song by the gospel singer Mahalia Jackson. This demonstrated a gentler side of the band in a ballad style arrangement that included solos from Luft and Wright and incorporated a sensitive drumming performance from Dick.

The first set concluded with the Luft composition “Daylight Saving Time”,  which appears on the “Dahab Days” album. The inspiration for the album came from the period of several months that Luft remained in Egypt after performing at the 2020 Cairo Jazz Festival. Luft described his arrangement as an “epic piece” and this was a performance that reflected the guitarist’s love of both Arabic and West African music. The opening passages were vaguely Middle Eastern in feel and were notable for some stunning interplay between guitar and tenor sax. Wright took the first solo, followed by a dazzling guitar excursion from Luft that saw the music migrate into joyous West African Highlife, all by way of a quote from the jazz standard “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered”. Terrific stuff, and a great way to end an excellent first half.

If anything the second half was to be even better, commencing with the delightfully melodic new composition “Echoes of Silence”, introduced by Dick at the drums and featuring solos from Luft and Wright.

A second new composition followed, “Another Blue World”, a piece taking its inspiration (as the title suggests) from the music of Brian Eno. That influence was readily apparent in the beautiful, shimmering translucence of the opening passages but became less obvious as the piece gathered momentum, becoming more riff based as Wright and Luft delivered typically excellent solos.

The “Dahab Days” album concludes with an arrangement of the seven hundred year old Arabic folk song “Lamma Bada Yatahanna, which dates from the time of the Moorish occupation of the Iberian peninsula. Luft explained that his adaptation was filtered through the diverse influences of Tom Waits and Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour, although I have to admit that I wouldn’t have picked up on that if we hadn’t been told. Complex rhythms that featured Dick’s inventive use of small items of percussion were teamed with Luft’s oud like guitar as the music evoked a suitably Arabic feel. The recorded version also features the playing of guest trumpeter Byron Wallen.

A shorter second set concluded with a medley, beginning with the theme tune from the film “Rosemary’s Baby”, written by the late Polish pianist and composer Krzysztof Komeda, this featuring Wright’s tenor sax playing Mia Farrow’s vocal line. This was a beautiful performance of this much loved composition that segued into “Berlin”, the tune that opens the “life Is The Dancer” album. It’s the only piece on the album that doesn’t feature Luft as the composer and was in fact written by the Danish bassist and composer Anders Christensen. It represents Christensen’s homage to the techno-music of Berlin and I’m also reminded of the music of “Low” / “Lodger” era David Bowie / Brian Eno. The hypnotic ‘motorik’ style beats laid down by McCredie and Dick also recalled the ‘krautrock’ of Neu! and Kraftwerk as Luft and Wright took flight, both delivering compelling solos that soared and spiralled above the implacable grooves. Luft joked that this was the band’s ‘biggest hit’, at least in terms of Youtube views.

It certainly achieved a wildly enthusiastic response from the Worcester audience and the quartet remained on stage to perform an encore of “As Time Passes”, a Luft composition that represents the title track of the album he recorded with Arild Andersen and Daniel Sommer. This was preceded by a short snippet of the Bill Frisell composition “Verona”, a tune from Frisell’s 1997 album “Gone, Just Like A Train”. Throughout this segue the focus was very much on beauty and melody with the leader the only featured soloist. A great way to end an excellent evening of music making. Let’s hope Luft’s first visit to Worcester won’t be his last, and thanks to Dave Fuller for bringing him here to deliver the “exceptional live music experience” promised in the MSH manifesto.

That said it wasn’t QUITE up to the standard of the 2019 Shrewsbury show, but this was largely due to the absence of Webb. His keyboard sounds really do add an extra dimension to the music and I can’t deny that I missed him here, although I suspect that most members of the audience probably weren’t in the position to make similar comparisons.

My thanks to Rob and Corrie for talking with me at length during the interval and after the show. Not only are they hugely talented musicians they are genuinely nice guys as well. That new album will be very keenly anticipated.

IAN MANN

Dave Fuller’s own account of the evening appears below;

‘World Premier Performance’ in Worcester!

You already know that over the last three years, we’ve brought some of the finest musicians from the UK to play in Worcester for the first time. Last Thursday was no exception, with the delightfully cheery and distinguished guitarist Rob Luft. What made this gig extra special was, as Rob declared, the ‘world premier’ performance of new music played for the first time in front of a live audience.

The quartet saw the return of ‘friends of the club’ Joe Wright on tenor sax and Corrie Dick on drums, who both appeared with Corrie’s Sun Swells band in November 2023. They were joined by Tom McCredie on bass.

The set opened with ‘One Day In Romentino’, taken from Rob’s 2020 album ‘Life Is The Dancer’ that started out with a dreamy guitar riff with Joe’s sax meandering through until segueing into a speedy, sparkling guitar feature driven along by a shiftless shuffle from Corrie before Joe breaks loose with an urgent solo some six minutes in!

Next was ‘Beware’, recorded on Rob’s debut album ‘Riser’ which again started with spatial, ethereal guitar and sax interplay before settling into a dancing groove evoking simultaneously Celtic and African vibes, with Joe almost ‘vocalising’ through the sax at one point.

The next song was the first ‘world premier’ performance of the evening - ‘Komorebi’ (the literal translation from Japanese being ‘sunlight leaking through trees’). This was followed by an arrangement of Duke Ellington’s ‘Come Sunday’ (incidentally the name adopted for the Birmingham jazz dance events at Hockley Social Club on the first Sunday of the month). Rob confessed wittily that he’d written the arrangement the day before ‘to cleanse himself’ after playing an ‘unglamorous golf club’ gig earlier in the week.

The first set closed out with ‘Daylight Saving Time’, the first piece of the evening from his latest Dahab Days album. This was a lively piece that developed into a blistering high life / calypso jam, appropriate for the upcoming weekend when the clocks go forward and we can start to enjoy the lighter evenings once more.

I believe a fair amount of vinyl and CDs were shifted during the interval and rightly so with the first set giving us a taster of most of the albums on offer. The band returned to the stage to open the second set with another new composition, ‘Echoes of Silence’ followed by the first ever performance of ‘Another Blue World’, inspired, as recounted by Rob, by Brian Eno’s ‘Another Green World’ album.

We were then treated to the quartet’s interpretation of an ancient Arabic folk song ‘Lamma Bada Yatathanna’, which Rob introduced as ‘a complicated dance rhythm infused with a light topping of Tom Waites and perhaps David Gilmour’ and featured Corrie, at one point using a selection of rattly things to brush and tap the head of his floor tom. The quartet wound the set up with a medley of Krzysztof Komeda’s theme from the film ‘Rosemary’s Baby’, going into ‘Berlin’, the second track of the evening taken from ‘Life Is The Dancer’.

The excited crowd that filled The Marr’s Bar on a Thursday night once again (six in a row now - BIG UP WORCESTER!) clamoured for more as the band regrouped one more time for an encore of ‘As Time Passes’, which Rob had written and recorded with Norwegian bassist Arild Anderson.

As always, we got a ton of great footage from the gig and there will be a video to commemorate the event on its way up to our YouTube channel later in the week.
https://www.youtube.com/@musicspokenhere

DAVE FULLER

 

 

 

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