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Bill Laurance & Michael League Keeping Company |
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 Topic: Bill Laurance & Michael League Keeping CompanyPosted: 14 hours 24 minutes ago at 1:36pm |
Bill Laurance & Michael LeagueKeeping Company Bill Laurance & Michael League “Keeping Company” ACT Music + Vision ACT 9061-2) Bill Laurance – piano, Michael League – oud, fretless bass, vocals
The American musician Michael League is best known as the founding member and leader of the long running Snarky Puppy, with whom he plays electric bass and also serves as one of the group’s principal composers. Originally formed at the University of North Texas in 2004 Snarky Puppy has recorded fifteen albums to date and operates with a large pool of musicians, predominately American but featuring members from all over the globe. Among this roster has been the British born pianist and keyboard player Bill Laurance, who first met League in Leeds when the pair worked together as sidemen on the same project. Laurance subsequently joined the Snarky Puppy ‘pool’ and appeared on several of the group’s recordings, including the 2019 release “Immigrance”, which is reviewed here; It was also in 2019 when I finally managed to enjoy the Snarky Puppy live experience for the first time at a show at O2 Academy in Bristol This is reviewed here; Meanwhile Laurance has established himself as a bandleader in his own right with more than a dozen albums to his credit as a leader or co-leader. In 2018 I was fortunate enough to enjoy a live performance by Laurance in conjunction with the Cologne based WDR Big Band conducted by Bob Mintzer. The band played Mintzer’s arrangements of Laurance’s hooky and highly accessible compositions. The event, which took place at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, was a huge success and formed part of that year’s EFG London Jazz Festival. It is reviewed as part of my Festival coverage here; Laurance has also written extensively for film and both he and League worked extensively with the late American singer, guitarist and songwriter David Crosby (1941 – 2023). In addition to his work with Snarky Puppy League formed the world music / blues ensemble Bokante, with whom he has recorded two albums. He has also worked extensively as a sideman and as a producer with a wide variety of artists and across a broad range of musical genres. League recorded his first solo album “So Many Me” on Snarky Puppy’s GroundUp label in 2021, a release that featured him playing a variety of string and percussion instruments as he gave expression to his love of the music of the wider Mediterranean region, an interest honed first by his Greek heritage and later by his relocation to the Catalonia region of Spain in 2020. League and Lawrence released their first duo recording “Where You Wish You Were” in 2023. Also appearing on the ACT imprint it was a work that attracted considerable critical acclaim and featured League playing guitar, oud and ngoni in addition to his usual bass. The music on “Keeping Company” has been distilled from a wealth of compositional ideas and was essentially recorded ‘live in the studio’ with minimum recourse to the art of overdubbing. Nine of the eleven tracks feature original compositions jointly credited to Laurence and League, the exceptions being “Africa”, written by the late Cuban-Jamaican trombonist Rico Rodriguez, and the traditional Turkish folk song “Iki Keklik Bir Kayada”. The album was recorded at Estudio Vint in Els Prats de Rei, Catalonia by engineer Nic Hard, who is also credited as co-producer alongside Laurance and League. Album opener “Katerina” demonstrates League’s abilities as an oud player, an instrument he first heard in childhood. He is now mentored by the Armenian-American oud master Ara Dinkjian, who has encouraged League to find his own voice on this fretless instrument, rather than becoming absorbed by any particular folk tradition. Meanwhile Laurance has expressed that it his intention to write flowing, singable melodies for the duo to explore, placing the emphasis on beauty and emotion as opposed to mere technique, although these two musicians already possess the latter in abundance. The tantalisingly brief “Katerina” is proof of this, with a beautiful folk like melody, that to these ears bears a fleeting resemblance to that of “Nature Boy”, acting as the vehicle for League’s captivating oud playing and Laurance’s subtle and understated pianistic support. “You” commences with a sparse solo piano melody centred around a repeated pedal note. Influenced by Minimalism it’s simple, but effective, and the sound of the piano is subsequently augmented by League’s haunting wordless vocals and fretless bass. Companion piece “Yours” places a stronger emphasis on rhythm with a lazy, near funk fretless bass groove augmented by a piano sound that almost sounds like an electric keyboard at times. However Laurance plays acoustic piano throughout the album, sometimes altering the sound of the instrument via the subtle use of prepared piano techniques. I suspect that this might be the case here. As befits its title “Escher” features spiralling, interlocking melody lines performed on piano and fretless bass. It’s the first piece to include anything like a conventional jazz solo as Laurance stretches out expansively at the piano, drawing on both jazz and classical influences. For this album the duo have declared it their intention to add something of a ‘soul jazz’ element. This bears fruit on “How Does It Feel”, a slinkily seductive item featuring the sounds of prepared piano emulating Rhodes alongside the purr of League’s bass. It’s a performance that has evoked comparisons with the music of Herbie Hancock. Maybe there’s a hint of Bob James in there too. “Stonemaker” sees League returning to the oud. It’s a darker, more atmospheric item than the earlier “Katerina” with the lead alternating between oud and piano. Possessed of an exotic and melancholic beauty and also featuring a brief wordless vocal from League it’s one of the album’s most compelling performances. By way of contrast “Africa”, written by Rico Rodriguez, is the jauntiest piece on the album with an infectious reggae style groove underpinning Laurance’s jazzy piano soloing. There’s an irresistible joyousness about the playing here, typified by the involuntary laughter that can still be detected in the final mix. “Clay” features a mix of oud and prepared piano and centres around a recurring keyboard motif. At a little over two minutes it feels like a compositional sketch, but the beguiling quality of the oud playing is worth the price of admission alone. The duo’s soul jazz leanings are re-introduced on “Where You Wanna Go”, which adds an element of bluesiness too as Laurance expounds on Rhodes like piano, with League offering solid support on bass. The lengthier “Trails” explores similar territory, with Laurance stretching out even further at the piano, underpinned by a recurring keyboard generated rhythmic vamp. League’s bass playing incorporates string slapping techniques that help to give his contribution a distinctive percussive quality. Finally we hear the duo’s arrangement of the traditional Turkish folk song “Iki Keklik Bir Kayada”, which combines lyrical acoustic piano with League’s evocative oud playing and gentle wordless vocalising. It’s a beautiful way to end the album. The music on “Keeping Company” is very different to that of the brash, groove orientated Snarky Puppy but is none the worse for that. It reveals a very different side of these two versatile musicians. The majority of the tracks are short, with only two pieces exceeding five minutes in duration. A number of them sound like compositional sketches, these offering the potential for further development in live performance, an aspect of the music that listeners will be able to check out for themselves when the duo undertake a short series of UK live shows in March 2025. In the meantime the recording offers a series of short melodic vignettes performed in an intimate manner by two highly accomplished musicians. League’s deployment of the oud, plus his occasional wordless vocals add a new layer of interest to a music that already deploys a wide range of stylistic influences. At times it’s almost a bit too easy on the ear and some listeners may find it all a little bloodless. Nevertheless the prospect of seeing this music being performed live at the duo’s forthcoming live shows is an enticing one and the tour dates are listed below; Sun 02 March
from www.thejazzmann.com Edited by snobb - 14 hours 23 minutes ago at 1:37pm |
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