The interzonal Alya Marquardt

Alya Marquardt - Alula

The breaking wave of anticipation hit London's shores way before the woman herself stepped out of the water. The influence of Alya Marquardt has already been felt in the capital with the recording of three albums for her new label Two Rivers. Both Calum Gourlay's solo bass album and the Tobias Delius/Olie Brice/Mark Sanders offering are to be released on 4th March 2015 at the Vortex. Her own album and performances are destined to reach further than the boundaries of the London and the UK.

George Crowley - Saxophone

Alya Marquadt is the British-Iraqi singer/song-writer, originally from Basrah in Southern Iraq but now living in London, UK. This night at the Green Note, Camden (11/01/2015) we had a mix of Iraqi folk songs, improv vignettes and original music influenced by Iraqi maqam and contemporary jazz. Her group Alula inhabit the 'cosmopolitan cultural interzone' (as described in The Independent) but this definition won't hold them for long, such is their desire for evolution and expression.

Shirley Smart - Cello

Word had spread and the Green Note was packed out with a who's who of journalists, players and music enthusiasts. I sat next to bassist Marianne Windham and jazz artist Elaine Breinlinger, across the darkened room I glimpsed London Jazz New's Sebastian Scotney beside trumpeter Yazz Ahmed and Shez Raja. The night's opener was just as deep and dark as the venue itself. Amongst the intricate motifs from saxophonist George Crowley were the dreadnoughts of bassist Olie Brice.



Nikos Ziarkis - Oud

The eye was taken by Alya Marquardt, while Nikos Ziarkis (oud), Shirley Smart (cello) and Sam Leak (piano) were hidden behind a BBC camera, such was the interest in this gig. They served up an exotic ploughman's by the fourth tune with an improvised dish. Asaf Sirkis (drums) was very much the crunch, a cracker perhaps. Nikos Ziarkis and Shirley Smart the tangy herbs. This was a flavour to excite, more than a meal in itself.



Asaf Sirkis - drums

Alya Marquardt was captivating throughout. She enchanted us with an unnerving desperation that made the escapist within express itself with desire.

Olie Brice - bass

Khadri El Chai put the smile on collective faces, including that of Asaf Sirkis who was obviously enjoying himself. The tune pulsed with an energy that propelled itself like a spinning top. Olie Brice's sound was the funboy at the party, like the buoyant bon viveur who knows all the best anecdotes. 

 

It was George Crowley who captured the hearts though. Despite a Gallic demeanour reminiscent of a young Inspector Closseau with a burgeoning moustache there was nothing haphazard or comical about his impact. Crowley was pivotal to the night, the music and pleasure.

 

Sam Leak - piano

Alya Marquadt is due to release the album Chai Party in early 2015. It will be launched on 6th April at Vortex jazz club in London.

 

AL.

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.