Tim Garland Quartet, Arena Theatre, Wolverhampton, 17/04/2015.

The saxophonist and composer Tim Garland is a British musician with an international reputation thanks to his work with the great American pianist and keyboard player Chick Corea plus the leadership of his own ensembles including his long running “Lighthouse” project which received international distribution thanks to a 2012 recording for the Munich based label ACT.

Garland is a musician with a foot in many camps from jazz to folk to classical and even a touch of rock thanks to his one time membership of drummer Bill Bruford’s Earthworks band. Recently signed to Edition Records Garland’s début for the label was an ambitious double album set entitled “Songs to the North Sky” which was released in June 2014. The first disc comprised of small group performances by the current edition of Lighthouse which included all four members of tonight’s quartet plus guest musicians John Turville and Geoffrey Keezer (both piano) and Kevin Glasgow (electric bass). Disc Two revealed Garland’s classical leanings and comprised of a series of mainly short pieces recorded with the strings of the Royal Northern Sinfonia and featuring the great American bassist John Patitucci as a guest soloist on both the acoustic and electric versions of his instrument. Garland and Patitucci had previously worked together as members of Chick Corea’s acoustic group The Vigil.  The playing of percussionist Asaf Sirkis graces both discs.

Although born in Kent Garland has been resident in the North East of England for many years and “Songs to the North Sky” represents his homage to his adopted homeland with many of the orchestral pieces inspired by locations in Northumberland and Tyneside. It’s an ambitious but successful recording that brings together many facets of Garland’s musical personality in a unified package and is a double set that has received considerable critical acclaim.

Lighthouse has its origins in Tim Garland’s 2005 solo project “If The Sea Replied” which grew out of a series of solo saxophone and bass clarinet improvisations recorded in Whitley Bay Lighthouse that utilised the building’s unique acoustic properties. Garland later formed a band to expand upon this music and to take it on the road and recruited pianist Gwilym Simcock and drummer/percussionist Sirkis for the project. Such was the rapport that developed between the three that the Lighthouse Trio became a semi permanent entity, still under the leadership of Garland, and a second album, the double set “Libra” was released in January 2009. Following their move to ACT the self titled “Lighthouse” was arguably their best recording to date but the increasingly busy Simcock eventually left the group to concentrate on other projects.

The group that Garland brought to the Arena included pianist Jason Rebello plus Ant Law on a variety of guitars and Asaf Sirkis playing a custom made drum kit that included North African and Middle Eastern frame drums, udu, hang drum and more conventional items such as bass drum, hi-hat and a variety of cymbals. Sirkis has been a constant presence in Lighthouse and his kit has grown exponentially over time and must now be truly unique. He’s a supreme technician and it’s always a pleasure to see him play.

Tonight’s set included a number of pieces sourced from the “Songs to the North Sky” album plus an interesting selection of carefully chosen outside material including a couple of well known jazz standards. The first set largely featured Garland on tenor saxophone before he switched his attention to the soprano following the interval. 

The evening commenced with a performance of the Bill Evans composition “Re; Person I Knew”, the title an anagram of the name of the famous jazz writer and record producer Orrin Keepnews (born 1923) who died on March 1st 2015. Garland’s tribute featured his own passionate tenor saxophone alongside the distinctive sound of Law’s semi-acoustic twelve string guitar, shades here of Ralph Towner, probably the only jazz soloist to genuinely specialise on the twelve string instrument. Rebello was also featured at the piano prior to Garland’s final restatement of Evans’ theme.

Next we heard Garland’s own “Yes To This”, a piece sourced from the small group half of “Songs to the North Sky”. This was a faster, more forceful offering on which Garland suggested that he and his colleagues would “all have a bit of a blow”. The composer led the way with a lively tenor solo that saw him hopping from foot to foot in excitement, Garland is very physical performer who takes an obvious delight in his own music making. He was followed by Rebello at the piano with a feverish and expansive solo propelled by Sirkis’ powerful percussive backing.

From the orchestral half of the recent album came “Tyne Song”, which Garland described as having been “reverse engineered” to adapt it for small group performance. A lyrical celebration of the river and the North Eastern landscape with a folk tinged melody the piece was introduced by Law on six string guitar with tenor sax, piano and finally percussion being introduced gradually. Garland adopted a singing, celebratory tone for his tenor solo, Law made judicious use of his effects pedals on his semi-acoustic six string excursion, and Rebello contributed a flowingly lyrical passage of unaccompanied piano.

The quartet returned to the standards repertoire for “Blue In Green”, a piece that famously first appeared on Miles Davis’ seminal “Kind of Blue” album. Garland admitted that tonight’s performance was totally unrehearsed although the Lighthouse Trio did record a version of the tune for the “Libra” album and it has since appeared in other Garland live sets. He then stated that he would “play the piano with the saxophone” and proceeded to place the bell of his tenor into the open lid of the piano to create an echoing, resonating effect. It’s a technique that I have seen deployed before on occasion but rarely as effectively as here, he really made those strings sing and reverberate.  As Garland returned to the front of the stage he struck up a dialogue with Law’s six string before the duo of Rebello and Sirkis took over,  the percussionist’s cymbals subtly embellishing the lyrical beauty of Rebello’s playing. Law then took over with a brief passage of solo guitar before Garland returned, this time playing soprano sax.

Garland remained on the smaller horn for the final item of an absorbing first set. This was an arrangement of “Windows”, one of the most celebrated compositions of Garland’s former boss Chick Corea. Corea first recorded the tune in 1961 and it’s a piece that has aged well. Tonight’s invigorating version was introduced by Rebello at the piano and featured Garland’s incisive soprano dancing lightly above the propulsive rhythms of Sirkis’ loose limbed percussion. Law followed on six string guitar before handing over to Rebello who delivered one of his most inventive solos of the night. I recently saw the pianist perform a largely standards orientated set at Shrewsbury School in the company of bassist Tom Farmer and drummer Troy Miller but overall I enjoyed his contribution more here, his solos in this context appeared to be more imaginative and unfettered despite his sideman role. The piece climaxed with a spectacular percussion feature from Sirkis which ended the first set on an energetic note.

During the interval we learnt that Garland and his colleagues had conducted a workshop with local school children during the day, part of Jazz In Wolverhampton’s ongoing outreach programme. Some of the older students had remained to witness the evening’s concert.
The next educational event on the organisation’s agenda will be a vocal workshop conducted by Sara Colman at Bilston Library on Saturday May 23rd at 11.00 am. This will be followed at 2.30 pm by a free concert performance by Colman, trumpeter Bryan Corbett and Al Gurr on both piano and bass. Tickets can be reserved by emailing .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Returning to tonight’s performance and a performance of one of Garland’s most recent compositions, “Bright New Year” written on 1st January 2015. This bright, optimistic tune with its Pat Metheny like melody featured solos from Garland on soprano sax and Rebello on piano followed by an astonishing 12 string solo from Law infused with Eastern inflections supported by the distinctive sound of Sirkis’ udu (or clay pot).

“A Brother’s Gift” appears on “Songs to the North Sky” but was first recorded by Garland’s trio featuring the American musicians Geoffrey Keezer (piano) and Joe Locke (vibraphone). Dedicated to Garland’s elder brother the piece boasts a lyrical, folk like melody which formed the basis for a series of absorbing exchanges between piano, six string guitar and soprano sax with Garland’s horn anchoring it all together. The performance was also notable for the distinctive sound of Sirkis on hang drum and his feature on the instrument that concluded the piece.

From “Songs to the North Sky” the tune “Little Bay Blue” was inspired by Whitley Bay and other locations on the Northumbrian coast. Garland spoke of his adopted home with the kind of infectious enthusiasm that makes him such a great educator. These qualities were also epitomised in his joyous soprano solo which was buoyed by Sirkis’ busily driving percussion. The performance was also notable for Law’s six string solo which deployed a range of unusual guitar voicings and also the series of exchanges between Law and Garland.

“Rosa Ballerina” is one of the older items in Garland’s repertoire, a piece first written to celebrate the birth of his daughter Rosa, now aged eighteen and into death metal he cheerfully informed us. This was a delightful duo performance featuring just Garland on soprano saxophone and Rebello at the piano. These two musicians have a long history and an intuitive understanding and their playing reminded me of another distinguished British saxophone and piano duo, that of Julian Arguelles and John Taylor.

During his tenure with Corea’s Vigil band Garland got to work with the great flamenco guitarist Paco de Lucia on Corea’s 2005 album “Rumba Flamenco”. Among the pieces on that record was de Lucia’s composition “Zyriab” which concluded tonight’s performance. Law played a distinctive electric guitar with a cut away body but its sound on his solo was strongly flavoured by flamenco with Sirkis offering equally distinctive udu backing. A series of exchanges between guitar and soprano sax eventually led to major solos from Garland and Rebello with both musicians displaying a remarkable level of fluency and invention. The second set ended like the first with a percussion feature from Sirkis and the performance left the ninety or so enthusiastic audience members shouting for more.

Leading his colleagues back out on to the stage Garland told us that his father, an orchestral conductor, would always reprise the most recent item in the concert performance as his encore. Thus we were treated to a second version of “Bright New Year”, inevitably different from the first in the true jazz tradition, notably the duet between Law and Sirkis that closed the piece following previous solos from Garland on soprano and Rebello on piano.

This had been an excellent performance from a well balanced group of highly talented musicians that had included some superb playing and an interesting selection of original and outside material. Garland presented the music in an intelligent and often humorous way and his obvious enthusiasm transmitted itself well to the audience, not quite a capacity crowd but large enough to create a positive atmosphere in which the musicians were able to thrive.

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