Sam Crockatt Quartet, The Hive Shrewsbury, 11/09/2010

The young tenor saxophonist Sam Crockatt is a member of the increasingly influential North London based Loop Collective of young musicians. Most of the Collective’s members are music college graduates and although they tend to concentrate their activities on more experimental areas of the music most also have a healthy respect for the jazz tradition.

On the evidence of tonight’s performance it’s probably fair to say that Crockatt has an even greater respect than most. Essentially this was a visiting soloist plus local rhythm section blowing session with the material comprised almost entirely of standards. Crockatt had only met his Birmingham based rhythm section an hour or so before the gig with the newly formed quartet quickly working out two sets of material to present to the Shrewsbury audience.

Billed here as the Shrewsbury Jazz Trio pianist Edgar Macias, bassist Tom Hill and drummer Miles Levin work together regularly, frequently backing visiting soloists here and elsewhere. With Macias originally hailing from Venezuela and Hill from the USA this was a truly international quartet. I’ve seen the three rhythm players before, they’re some of the Midlands’ leading musicians, and all three appear on Macias’ excellent 2005 release “Fox Hunt” on the Birmingham based Rehab record label.

Crockatt’s own recording début “Howeird” was released on the Loop label in 2008 and garnered a good deal of critical acclaim including the award of “best album” at the Parliamentary Jazz Awards.
“Howeird” features a programme of Crockatt originals and an all star band featuring Gwilym Simcock on piano, Oli Hayhurst on double bass plus drummer Ben Reynolds who was seen at Shrewsbury earlier in the year as part of the John Turville Trio.

Sam was kind enough to give me a copy of “Howeird” after tonight’s gig and I’ll be taking a look at that in due course. In the meantime he has returned to the same studio in Italy to record his second album, again with Hayhurst and Reynolds in the engine room and with man of the moment Kit Downes replacing Simcock at the piano.

On then, with this evening’s music. A decent sized crowd squeezed into The Hive to see two good natured sets of highly competent jazz from this impromptu quartet. Inevitably the bulk of it was in a predictable “heads/solos/heads” format but there was enough good playing and good humour to make for a thoroughly enjoyable evening nevertheless. Crockatt proved to be a charming and informative interlocutor between tunes, readily acknowledging the influence of giants such as John Coltrane and Joe Henderson on his playing.

From the outset it was obvious that Crockatt is a fluent soloist with a high degree of technical accomplishment. He’s been playing since the age of ten and things just seemed to come easily to him. Crockatt’s father was an accomplished stride pianist and a gift for music obviously runs in the family.

Crockatt began by paying tribute to the great Dexter Gordon with a segue of “It Could Happen To You” and “Fried Bananas”. As on most of the pieces heard this evening there were features for all four musicians with Crockatt soloing first followed by Macias on electric piano, Hill on double bass and Levin with a series of drum breaks.

One of Crockatt’s more unusual gigs is playing Disney tunes at St. Pancras station as passengers board the Eurostar for EuroDisney. This was the unlikely inspiration for the ballad “A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes” from the Disney film “Cinderella”. Macias soloed first, a lengthy excursion on his Roland 700 GX, followed by Hill at the bass. Crockatt’s own solo was warm, tender and fluent, showing the influence (unacknowledged tonight) of British saxophonist Julian Arguelles.

The quartet’s take on Miles Davis’ bop classic “Four” was inspired by the version heard on the album “Joe Henderson Meets The Wynton Kelly Trio”. The piece was introduced by a saxophone/drum duet before progressing through solos by Crockatt, Macias and Hill before Levin traded fours with both saxophone and piano.

The second ballad of the set was Jimmy Van Heusen’s “Nancy With The Laughing Face”, the lyrics of which were written by Phil Silvers- or Sergeant Bilko to you. When Macias first posited this I thought he was winding us up but apparently it’s true. Anyway, the piece featured Macias extensively as he duetted with Crockatt on the intro with Hill subsequently taking over from the saxophonist. Macias and Crockatt then soloed in more orthodox fashion as the whole band came in.

To close the first half Crockatt introduced an original tune entitled simply “Blues”.
“It’s not really a blues, but it’s bluesy” explained Crockatt and it certainly provided a rousing finish to an enjoyable first set with solos coming from Crockatt, Macias and Hill.

The second set kicked off with “I Only Have Eyes For You”, introduced by a duet between Crockatt and Hill and with subsequent solos from Crockatt, Macias and Hill, the latter the bassist’s best of the night thus far. Miles Levin is the son of legendary British drummer Tony Levin and dad took up a seat in the front row for the second half, clearly enjoying his boy’s performance on a series of breaks towards the end of the tune.

The quartet explored modal jazz with John Coltrane’s “Syeeda’s Song Flute”, a dedication to his then young niece from the classic 1960 album “Giant Steps”. The sometimes childlike melody inspired Macias to one of his best solos of the night, this followed by another highlight, the sax/drum dialogue between Crockatt and Levin.

This set’s ballad feature was “I Can’t Get Started” with Macias managing to conjure a degree of warmth from his electric instrument, sensitively supported by Levin on brushes. Best of all though was Hill, deploying a wide range of sounds and techniques on his battered old acoustic bass, among them stops, slides and flamenco style strumming. 

Crockatt once studied with the great Lee Konitz, a wonderful but terrifying experience by all accounts and one that inspired the quartet’s Latin style take on “I’ll Remember April” with solos from Macias, Crockatt and Levin.

One of the features of the quartet’s performance was the affability and good humour shown on the bandstand. Hill is something of a showman (he has a lucrative sideline as the voice of Tony the Tiger on the breakfast cereal ads) and Crockatt was happy to let him take the spotlight by allowing him to sing (and play bass of course) on the intro to “On The Sunny Side Of The Street”. Hill devoted the piece to his teenage daughter who was in the audience and clearly embarrassed by it all.
Still, it was great fun for the rest of us as Crockatt’s sax harmonised with Hill’s vocal. More orthodox solos came from Crockatt and Macias before Hill wound things up with another bass and vocal feature which unveiled his scatting abilities. Great fun, and, I suspect, genuinely spontaneous.

The quartet wound things up by romping through “Lester Leaps In”, introduced by Crockatt on unaccompanied tenor and with solos coming from Crockatt, Macias and Hill before a climactic ending led by Crockatt’s powerful tenor.

The quartet went down a storm, their sense of fun was infectious and communicated itself to the Shrewsbury audience. OK, there was nothing profound here and Crockatt is often to be found in more challenging situations but the quality of the playing, particularly from the young saxophonist,  plus the good humoured nature of the performance ensured that there was plenty to enjoy here. “I just love playing these old tunes” Crockatt said to me afterwards and his obvious enthusiasm was reflected in his playing.

Sam Crockatt is surely destined to become a highly prominent name on the UK jazz scene. I’ll come back to “Howeird” but I’m also very much looking forward to the release of his second album. 

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