Slowly Rolling Camera, Arena Theatre, Wolverhampton, 31/05/2014.

It was a strange night in the West Midlands. How often do you find yourself torn between the rival attractions of concerts by two of the country’s leading contemporary jazz acts? - in a set of circumstances rendered all the more unbelievable given the fact that both bands share the same record label!

Yet this was what happened on the night of May 31st as Phronesis rolled into Birmingham Town Hall and their label mates, Slowly Rolling Camera pitched up in Wolverhampton. Tonight was the final performance in the inaugural season of Jazz at the Arena, a highly successful series of gigs that has included appearances from Zoe Rahman, Gilad Atzmon, Gary Crosby, Tord Gustavsen, Kyle Eastwood and The Impossible Gentlemen. Initially it was Phronesis who were due to bring the curtain down before the summer break but their current tour has been publicised as being performed entirely “in the round”, a configuration that the physical infrastructure of the Arena Theatre was not equipped to accommodate. Instead Phronesis moved across the region to the Town Hall with Edition Records label boss Dave Stapleton offering the services of his own band Slowly Rolling Camera to fill the now vacant slot in Wolverhampton. Happily Phronesis are now due to visit The Arena on November 15th 2014 thereby ensuring that the loyal jazz fans of Wolverhampton will still be able to get their fix of Jasper Hoiby’s increasingly inspired trio.

Meanwhile Slowly Rolling Camera presented something very different from the rest of the Arena’s jazz programme. The brainchild of pianist, composer and record label owner Dave Stapleton the new band presents a previously little known aspect of Stapleton’s musical activities. His long running quintet DSQ made its name with a punchy, hard driving updating of the classic Blue Note hard bop sound but more recent projects such as the albums “Catching Sunlight” and “Flight” have revealed Stapleton’s interest in other types of music, these including the classical music of his youth and also a growing fascination with writing for film.

Presumably it’s Stapleton’s interest in photography and cinema that inspired the name of Slowly Rolling Camera, a fluctuating cast of musicians centred around the core quartet of Stapleton on piano and keyboards, DSQ drummer Elliott Bennett, electronics wizard Deri Roberts and vocalist/lyricist Dionne Bennett (unrelated to Elliott as far as I’m aware). The four have known each other from Stapleton’s days gigging in jazz and funk bands around Cardiff before his eventual move back to his native Wiltshire. 

SRC is essentially a song based group with Stapleton providing the music and Dionne Bennett the words. Stylistically they are strongly influenced by the Cinematic Orchestra with other reference points being Portishead and Massive Attack, the trip hop like combination of Dionne Bennett’s earthy, soulful vocals and Roberts’ immersive electronics is reminiscent of both these Bristol based bands. Stapleton is keen that the music should have a cinematic, wide screen sound and the group’s eponymous début album (on Edition, natch) features an illustrious list of guests ,many of them drawn from the Edition stable. These include Jasper Hoiby (double bass), Chris Montague (guitar), Mark Lockheart (saxophones), Neil Yates (trumpet) and Matt Robertson (synths). There are also a total of eight string players as Stapleton marshals his forces to create an exotic sound world rich in both acoustic and electronic textures with Dianne Bennett’s voice the crucial humanising factor.

On entering the auditorium the first thing that struck me was how crowded the stage was. The live SRC proved to be a septet featuring the four core members plus Ben Waghorn on tenor and soprano sax,  old Cardiff associate Aidan Thorne on double bass and the Cinematic Orchestra’s Stuart McCallum on guitar, a stamp of authentication and approval if ever there was one. 

Introducing the band Alison Vermee, the Arena Theatre’s Development Officer and organiser of the Jazz Programme, thanked the charity Jazz In Wolverhampton and their tireless band of volunteers who have worked so hard to make this first jazz season a success. She also thanked the DJ’s of All Hands On Decks who conducted a vinyl session in the bar before the gig and during the interval. This worked well and added to the atmosphere of the event, particularly so for a band of the nature of SRC . It is planned that these sessions will become a regular feature although this could present logistical problems in the event of a sell out audience.

  Alison also explained that Stapleton and his colleagues had conducted an afternoon workshop with young students courtesy of the Wolverhampton Music Service. Several of these young musicians formed part of the audience which unfortunately was the smallest of the series, a direct result perhaps of the rival attraction down the road in Birmingham. On a more positive note there were a number of first timers tonight, vindication of Alison’s decision to make the range of jazz offered by the programme as diverse as possible. 

And so at last on to the music. SRC commenced with their signature tune, “Slowly Rolling Camera” was a song before it became an album and a title and a band name. It was immediately obvious just how central Roberts’ electronics are to the band’s sound and overall aesthetic as the music began with a slew of moody electronics, gradually joined by cymbal shimmers and spidery guitar in an early demonstration of SRC’s soundscaping abilities. Bennett’s soulful vocals evoked memories of Portishead and Massive Attack, especially so when the music adopted a more anthemic tone with soaring wordless vocals out of which Waghorn’s soprano sax solo suddenly erupted, tearing away from the main body of the song. Dynamic contrast plus the mix of acoustic and electronic sounds is a key component of SRC’s raison d’etre.

Solo bass introduced “Dream A Life” before locking in with Elliot Bennet’s hip hop style drum grooves. McCallum’s ringing guitar solo and Waghorn’s tenor sax feature were instrumental highlights either side of Dionne Bennett’s soulful and powerful affirmations of the positive power of romantic love.

The reflective soul ballad “The Rain That Falls” saw Stapleton moving from electric keyboards to the Arena’s grand piano accompanied by bass, brushed drums and sampled strings. Dionne Bennett’s gentle vocal and Waghorn’s warm tenor ensured that the music remained atmospheric and effective.

Sampled strings introduced “Bridge”, the musicians looking vaguely embarrassed as they twiddled their proverbial thumbs (it’s the real thing on the album of course). Eventually Stapleton on acoustic piano took over in duet with Dionne Bennett’s gospel flavoured vocals. A slow burning tenor solo then led to a dynamic shift as Bennett’s voice soared in power ballad style above a lush backdrop of sampled strings before a gentle fade. The recorded version makes effective use of the distinctive trumpet sound of Neil Yates.

An extended solo bass introduction from the excellent Thorne (with Elliott Bennett periodically providing succinct drum commentary)  ushered in “Protagonist”, the dramatic album opener, electronics and Rhodes subsequently combining over hip hop styled grooves and Dionne Bennett’s hypnotic “you give me the air I want to need to breathe” vocal refrain. Instrumental highlights included a rare keyboard solo from Stapleton (the leader nevertheless still a key component of the collective sound) and another tenor excursion from Waghorn, the saxophonist’s numerous features being the most obviously “jazz” element of the group.

The first set closed with a piece that emerged from an atmospheric mix of electronics, sampled strings and arco bass to embrace hypnotic rhythms and solos from McCallum on guitar and Waghorn on soprano plus Dionne Bennett’s powerful vocals. By a process of elimination it must have been “Color”, the closing track on the album, but it sounded very different from the recorded version.

Set two began with two of the album’s instrumental set pieces. These proved to be just as evocative as the songs with adjectives such as “cinematic”, “pictorial”, “noirish” and “atmospheric” springing again to mind. The delicately brooding “Outside” found Stapleton moving between acoustic and electric keyboards with Thorne on bowed bass and Waghorn on electronically treated tenor also making significant contributions. It should be noted that Deri Roberts is also a highly accomplished saxophonist and has recorded with Stapleton on this instrument, most notably on “The Conway Suite”, a duo recording featuring pipe organ and saxophone released in 2005.

Meanwhile “Rolling Clouds” featured McCallum’s searing guitar (Chris Montague excels on the album), Waghorn’s soprano, and a drum feature for Elliot Bennett who explored his kit above the backdrop of Stapleton’s needling Rhodes vamp.

Dionne Bennett returned to the stage to sing “Undertones”, a song only available as a bonus track on the digital version of the album. She revealed that she was involved in treating her own sound as the judicious use of echo on her vocals attested.

The set closed with two of the most accessible songs from the album, “Two Roads” and “Fragile Ground”. These two pieces represented the group at their most obviously “nu soul” with Dionne Bennett’s lyrics and vocals at the heart of the arrangements. Each smouldered effectively with Bennett’s emotive vocals augmented by hip hop style grooves, McCallum’s economic but effective guitar, and trippy keyboards and electronics. “Fragile Ground” expanded to positively anthemic proportions before a delicate coda, and proved to be a highly effective set closer.

With the audience well below capacity an encore was not forthcoming but there was little doubt that the audience had enjoyed what they’d heard.  The band sold all of their stock of vinyl LP’s, these at a whopping £20.00 a throw, so they must have been doing something right. The audience comments I heard afterwards were almost universally positive.

Although not a jazz album per se “Slowly Moving Camera” has much to recommend it, strong melodies, deep grooves, captivating vocals and imaginative arrangements. It’s an album that’s likely to hold considerable appeal to adventurous pop and rock listeners, particularly fans of Portishead and Massive Attack, two of the more obvious reference points. Although a little outside my usual listening zone these days I have to say that I was impressed by both the album and tonight’s live performance. This is a group capable of establishing a fan base across a variety of musical genres.

Despite the unfortunate “fixture clash” this represented a successful end to the first season of “Jazz at the Arena”. Music fans in the Midlands will now look forward to the Autumn programme which will again offer a broad mixture of jazz styles with newcomers to the venue such as Quercus and Arun Ghosh alternating with perennial favourites like Phronesis and The Impossible Gentlemen. Well done to Alison Vermee and her team, bring it on!

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