Calum Gourlay - One Bass, Two Rivers

Calum Gourlay - Double Bass

You cannot help but feel instantly nostalgic for a moment like this, even though it has only just departed. A catalyst that converts potential into the tangible, and the narrative of our lives into another dog-eared page to turn back to. Which makes it all sound so grand, yet in reality it was so simple.

Alex Bonney

The catalyst in question is Calum Gourlay, who recorded an album of solo bass for new record label, Two Rivers Records, which will be officially be born in 2015. He recorded his album live in front of a rapt audience at a residential property in Golders Green (03/12/2014). The room was packed out with friends from London's creative jazz scene and from those of us who couldn't resist a reviving shot to our creative juices.

The room had the warmest of glows, deep filled sofas matched the mince pies with equal invitation. It was impossible not to play a game of who's who with the amassed audience. In the corner sat Alex Bonney who's job was to record this solo voyage. It will be fascinating task to see if he can replicate the warmth of atmosphere in the room. It was so quiet and still that I could hear every breath that my sofa neighbour exhaled.

The sense of the unexpected made the first tune a tense affair, everyone was scared to make a sound. Alone on bass Calum Gourlay dipped into the recording like as a rower hitting a comfortable stroke. The stealthy joy of Ornette Coleman's Ramblin' made you think he was afloat in a bathtub rather than a life raft. The second tune, Chairman Mao, had a pulsing rub to it like Gourlay was occupied with a tasty stick of chewing gum. Eventually he spat it out and once squashed under foot it resembled in colour and shape one of those principalities you find in school geography atlases.

Gourlay Snr

Although alone and with just double bass in hand there was still plenty of musical faces to pull from Calum Gourlay. Rhythm a ning was dexterous, chipper and even comical in his hands. An animated story in musical form. Monk's Mood cast Gourlay's sunlight through a window. Angular shapes played out on staircases, they softened and danced slowly across the tune as he brought us from morning into sleepy afternoons. I looked across and sketched Calum's Gorlay's dad as he rested his eyes, you couldn't help but think was a lullaby for a father.

The second half of the recording was equally evocative. Excuse my lack of titles, the eyes were on sketchbook page and the mind had dialled to dream. The sixth tune moulded modernity and the old-fashioned by use of the bow on strings. Calum Gourlay gave the tune such depth it sounded like two instruments were playing. Exotic radiowaves played as though they erupted from Francis Bacon's rumbling tummy, a kind of beautiful indigestion. The seventh tune was folky with sweet narratives that talked of youthful adventures and smoky stories. The first wave of nostalgia crept upon us with the memories of Polaroids and miniature test strips.

Dark warmth of
Calum Gourlay

There was a second set with a recording of a few bonus tracks in the spirit of Charlie Haden's Closeness album, with Gourlay performing three distinct and beautiful duets. The album launch will be at the Vortex in London on Wednesday 4th March 2015. It is a quick turn around for Alex Bonney and Two Rivers Records and the rest of 2015 looks equally intense. Two albums by Alya Marquardt are followed by the talented trio of Tobias Delius, Olie Brice and Mark Sanders. There are more signings already confirmed on the label with two EPs of solo piano compositions from Clemens Pötzsch and one from saxophonist Robert Menzel quartet in spring 2015.

AL.

Both barrels from The Twelveheads

Peter Ibbetson - drums

Last Tuesday (05/03/2013) I witnessed the birth of a new band, it wasn't a difficult delivery, in fact no gas or air was needed and we smoothly entered a new era for the SE Collective's Peter Ibbetson. The new arrivals were 'The Twelveheads' who broke their waters at The Amersham Arms in New Cross, London.

This is a new monicker for the quartet who I had seen under their previous name, Pseudonym, just a few weeks earlier (November 2012, Spice of Life).
The S.E. Collective at the Amersham Arms have built a hard and cutting edge reputation in their brief history and this was another rapier like thrust into the soft underbelly of the London's music scene.

Although it's been through lean times, we have a nimble and expressive group of old and new Jazz musicians writing and performing some fantastic new material during Britain's darkest days of austerity. Capitalising on the appetite for fresh and original tunes Ibbetson was recording the night's endeavours with the help of Alex Bonney, who hid in the shadows, illuminated only by the glow of his laptop.

Alam Nathoo - saxophone

It was a patient and measured start that sucked the air from the venue itself (I Hate Nostalgia, I Want Nothing To Do WIth It.), creating a build up of latent energy that left me emotionally thirsty.
Then we felt the pumping rhythms of Alam Nathoo and the wafting & sweeping of Tom Challenger (Tenor) saxophones on 'All That Was, and How It Is Now'.

Nathoo is soft shouldered player, giving no indication of his power and intensity from the outside. Again Challenger has a disarming and prepossessing demeanour that is more Teddy bear than Grizzly. Although both took the spotlight on regular occasions  their power was at its greatest when working together. They elevate their performance not by competition but by nurture and building upon each other successes.



Tom Challenger - Saxophone

Entering the middle phase of the recording and Ibbetson's beats pulsed from his electronic box. They we're evocative and subtle throughout. For example in a composite of 'You Never Listen' and '51 Rue Cler' the electronic sounds we're reminiscent of a bell, perhaps warning you of an incident in a distant (mental health) ward. Ibbetson was restraint itself throughout, developing beautiful layers through scratches and washes. Although physically in the background he's very much the leader, both conducting with a lone hand at one point, and more commonly with eyes full of intensity.

At last we passed half-way and the quartet let rip with the bouncy melodic 'Here Comes Mylo'', a tune about an excitable dog. Apologies for this ham-fisted metaphor but 'The Twelveheads' were let of the lead, Challenger leaned back like he was begging for treats, Ibbetson's sticks rapped a barking beat, Tom Framer on bass wagged his shaggy tail and like a mischievous hound Nathoo pissed up the legs of the audience with devilish charm, and even cracked a smile at the end.

Tom Farmer - Bass

On the last tune of their recording Nathoo and Challenger again worked so well together under Ibbetson's direction. Both took turns building up the structure of 'Too Much To Think' until they then smashed their creation down with  both barrels of their collective saxophones.

Like many a musical evening we leave the venue picking through the pieces of our memory, humming the shard of
a tune or recreating a slideshow of images to replay in the future. The snapshot I'll leave with is not an image of Peter Ibbetson's first musical baby..... but of his twins, Challenger and Nathoo, crying in honeyed harmony. Don't take my word for it, look out for the CD that will grow up to be one of the 'big boys' of the Jazz playground.

AL