Glen Manby with the John Gibbon Trio

“When Sunny gets Blue”

(33 Jazz 33JAZZ305)

Glen Manby – alto saxophone, John Gibbon – drums, Guy Shotton – piano, Olly Blanchflower – bass

Glen Manby is an alto saxophonist and composer based in Cardiff who has been a mainstay of the South Wales Jazz scene for many years leading his own small groups ranging from trio to quintet.

I first recall seeing him play way back in 1994 when he led his quartet in a performance at the now long defunct Cardiff Bay International Jazz Festival. I have seen him perform many times since at venues in Brecon and Abergavenny as the leader of his own groups and sometimes with the bands of others.

Manby was also a member of the cult Cardiff band - and Brecon Jazz Festival favourites - The Root Doctors led by trombonist/vocalist Mike Harries. 

He also played with a number of other popular bands across a range of jazz and other genres on the South Wales live music circuit including Red Beans ‘ n’ Rice, Bomb and Dagger, The Questionnaires, Love Parade, guitarist Rob Haddon’s Praxis group and vocalist Li Harding’s quintet. Currently he is a member of Chapter Four, the house band at Cardiff’s Chapter Arts Centre, which also features pianist Jim Barber, bassist Don Sweeney and drummer Greg Evans. 

But Manby’s first love was always jazz and particularly the music of the bebop and hard bop eras. As a jazz musician he has chosen to concentrate on alto saxophone (he has also played tenor) and cites his main influences on the instrument as being Charlie Parker, Cannonball Adderley, Sonny Stitt, Phil Woods, Jackie McLean, Paul Desmond and the UK’s own Peter King. Other sources of inspiration include trumpeter Tom Harrell and tenor saxophonists Sonny Rollins, Warne Marsh and Mario Rivera.

Manby has been tutored by a whole host of illustrious saxophonist /  educators and has also spent time overseas studying in the USA and Switzerland in addition to gaining an MA in  Jazz from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama (RWCMD) in Cardiff. He has also taught saxophone at the RWCMD and at Cardiff University.

In 2015 Manby was awarded an Arts Council of Wales Project Grant , which helped to the finance the recording of his debut album “Homecoming”, which was made in the company of a stellar quintet of London based musicians featuring trumpeter Steve Waterman, pianist Leon Greening, bassist Adam King and drummer Matt Home.  Seven of the ten tracks were Manby originals, largely written in a broadly hard bop style, and the album attracted a good deal of positive attention from the national jazz media.  My review of “Homecoming” can be found here;
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/glen-manby-homecoming

For both economical and geographical reasons it was always unlikely that the all star “Homecoming” quintet could ever become a going concern and for his second album as a leader Manby has collaborated with a trio of musicians based in South Wales and the Borders.

The John Gibbon Trio is the ‘house band’ at the regular jazz nights held at the Old Black Lion Hotel in Hay-on-Wye. Led by drummer / promoter John Gibbon, a veteran of the Welsh jazz circuit, the trio frequently accompanies top visiting soloists such as saxophonists Simon Spillett, Art Themen and Jo Fooks and guitarist Jim Mullen.

Manby has guested with the trio on numerous occasions and has established a strong rapport with them. He subsequently decided that they would make suitable collaborators for the recording of his second album. The music was documented over the course of a single day in October 2022 at the famous Rockfield Recording Studios near Monmouth. Gibbon is a long time friend of the Ward family and in Manby’s words “they fitted us into a slot between the big buck bands”.

A couple of gigs were arranged prior to the studio session to strengthen the collective rapport, with Manby also praising the natural tightness of the trio, something gained from their working together on a weekly basis at the Old Black Lion.

This time round there’s a greater emphasis on the standards repertoire and only two of the nine tracks are Manby originals. This is something of a shame as I like Manby’s writing, but his two pieces are among the stand out tracks. He has, however, expressed an ambition to compose more in the future and to eventually release an album comprised of entirely original material.

Manby’s second album commences with his own “Robinson on Madison”. In an interview with the Jazz Views website http://www.jazzviews.net he explained the inspiration behind the composition;

“With both original tunes the initial aim was to have a simple folk-like melody, but with the changing underlying harmony giving it the major dimension of interest. The melody I came up with for ‘Robinson’ reminded me of the music that was on an old black and white serialised version of Robinson Crusoe that was on TV when I was a child. Harmonically I was thinking of one movement of the Howard Brubeck composition “Dialogues For Jazz Quartet and Orchestra”, originally recorded by Dave Brubeck’s band with Leonard Bernstein’s New York Philharmonic, for which I had the honour of playing the Paul Desmond role with an orchestra at the Porthcawl Jazz Festival several years ago. This piece of music conjures up the sound and spirit of New York in the 1950’s, of which Madison Avenue is central – so ‘Robinson on Madison’ had to be the title!”

“Robinson on Madison” does indeed possess an arresting melody that provides the basis for the composer’s fluent alto soloing, with the trio providing appropriately swinging support. Pianist Guy Shotton, another popular figure on the South Wales jazz scene, delivers a sparkling piano solo. Shotton is the leader of his own groups and has also distinguished himself as a skilled accompanist, particularly of vocalists. Since the album was made he has followed in Manby’s footsteps and has been studying in New York. Also featuring with a melodic solo on double bass is Olly Blanchflower, a highly capable and experienced musician who was a mainstay of the London jazz scene before moving to the Welsh Borders.

It’s Blanchflower’s unaccompanied bass that introduces the quartet’s delightful version of the Antonio Carlos Jobim tune “How Insensitive”. The piece is also notable for Gibbon’s hand drumming, which forms a particularly distinctive part of the arrangement. Shotton takes a concise and lyrical piano solo before handing over to Manby, who stretches out further, but all the while maintaining a strong melodic focus. Gibbons’ drum feature offers a further example of his bare hand drumming, which is also pleasingly melodic.

The Chick Corea composition “Windows” has become something of a modern standard and Manby and his colleagues treat the piece with suitable respect, whilst still continuing to swing. Shotton delivers another fluent piano solo before Manby stretches out, probing subtly, his tone incisive but inherently melodic.

Manby is at his most fluent on a fast swinging version of the standard “I Hear A Rhapsody”, exploring his instrument’s lower registers and making it all seem effortless. Shotton follows suit at the piano, in turn superseded by Blanchflower at the bass, with Gibbon also weighing in at the drums as he ‘trades fours’ with sax and piano.

Shotton introduces the title track, the first true ballad of the set with Manby’s poignant alto sound complemented by the pianist’s lyricism plus Blanchflower’s melodicism on double bass. Gibbon delivers a sensitive performance behind the kit, as he does throughout the album. An exuberant live performer his playing throughout the album is commendably tasteful, either swinging or subtle as required.

I recall seeing Manby’s original composition “The Road to Sougia” being played at the 2024 Brecon Jazz Festival when Manby appeared with a quartet featuring Gibbon, bassist Paula Gardiner and pianist Rachel Starritt. The band was billed as the Rachel Starritt / Glen Manby Quartet but it has to be said that the pianist, as brilliant as she undoubtedly is, was overly dominant. Nevertheless Manby was able to have this piece performed, and it represented something of a set highlight.

In his interview with jazz Views Manby said of this tune;
“As regards the ‘Road to Sougia’ this was an attempt at writing a minor modal blues waltz in a Coltrane vein – after I had written the whole piece and played it on a couple of gigs, I went on holiday to Crete, and one day drove down to a sleepy village on the south coast called Sougia. To get there, you have to drive for miles down a long hot windy road, snaking one’s way down from the hills. I immediately heard in my mind’s ear the recently written tune as a soundtrack to this winding, snaking journey, so decided I had to call the piece ‘The Road to Sougia’.”

As Manby suggests the piece has a suitably sinuous, but undeniably captivating, melody that provides the jumping off point for vibrant solos from Shotton, Blanchflower and the composer himself. As at the live performance it’s a definite highlight and an excellent example of Manby’s potential as a composer.

The quartet sound as if they’re having great fun as they romp through the Clifford Brown tune “The Blues Walk”, with joyous solos coming from both Manby and Shotton as Blanchflower and Gibbon really drive the tune along. The rhythm team also get to enjoy individual features, with Blanchflower delivering a concise double bass solo and Gibbon entering into a lively set of exchanges with sax and piano.

It’s interesting to hear the Rogers & Hammerstein tune “My Favourite Things”, made famous in a jazz context by tenor saxophonist John Coltrane, played on alto. There’s no attempt to copy Coltrane as the tune is performed in a more straight ahead manner with uplifting solos from Shotton at the piano and the leader on alto as Manby makes the piece very much his own. The excellent Blanchflower is again allotted plenty of solo space, and rightly so.

The album concludes with a swinging arrangement the standard “There is No Greater Love”, the vehicle for fluent and engaging solos from Manby, Shotton and Blanchflower plus a final series of drum breaks from Gibbon, who really impresses throughout this recording.

Although less ambitious than its predecessor in terms of original composition Manby’s second album is a worthy addition to his catalogue and in Gibbon, Shotton and Blanchflower he has what could potentially become a working band.

The original compositions blend in well with an interesting selection of standards and the quality of the playing from all four musicians is excellent throughout. The high standard of the musicianship is matched by the recording quality, so hats off to producer Manby and recording engineer Jack Boston.

It’s also good to see a ‘regional’ quartet getting some exposure on national record label, so thanks are also due to executive producer Paul Jolly and the estimable 33 Records.

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