Nick Costley-White - Poncha

Nick Costley-White

“Poncha”

(Ubuntu Music UBU0188)

Nick Costley-White – guitar, Julian Siegel – tenor saxophone, Conor Chaplin – double bass, James Maddren – drums

“Poncha” is the third album release by the London based guitarist and composer Nick Costley-White. It follows “Detour Ahead” (2018) , which is reviewed elsewhere on The Jazzmann, and the trio set “Nice Work!” from 2023.

Costley-White is a graduate of the jazz course at the Guildhall School of Music in London, where his guitar tutors included Colin Oxley, Phil Robson, John Parricelli and Mike Outram.   He is a versatile musician who is capable of performing across a variety of jazz genres and is an active presence on the London jazz scene.

Besides leading his own groups Costley-White has worked as a sideman with such well established musicians as saxophonists Brandon Allen,  Martin Speake, Stan Sulzmann, Alex Garnett, Alec Harper, Harry Greene and Pete Hurt, pianists Jason Rebello, Kit Downes and Ivo Neame,  trumpeter Steve Fishwick, flautist Gareth Lockrane, clarinettist Julian Bliss, drummers Jeff Williams and Mark Taylor, percussionist Keith Fairbairn and jazz french horn player Jim Rattigan..

He has recorded with rising stars Henry Spencer (trumpet) and Tommy Andrews (alto sax) plus the group Snowpoet, co-led by vocalist/lyricist Lauren Kinsella and bassist/multi-instrumentalist Chris Hyson.

Costley-White is also a member of the Dixie Ticklers, a young sextet who put a modern twist on classic trad jazz and New Orleans material.

In November 2016 I enjoyed a performance by Costley-White at Iklectik in Waterloo that formed part of that year’s EFG London Jazz Festival. The guitarist was leading a trio featuring Chaplin and drummer Dave Ingamells in a programme that explored the music of Jerome Kern and Cole Porter.

More recently I enjoyed seeing Costley-White playing guitar with saxophonist Brandon Allen’s quintet at The Hive in Shrewsbury, the ‘Some Kinda Mean’ show a themed performance paying homage to the American the saxophonist, flautist, composer, arranger and bandleader David ‘Fathead’ Newman (1933-2009). Review here;
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/brandon-allen-quintet-some-kinda-mean-the-music-of-david-fathead-newman-shrewsbury-jazz-network-the-hive-music-media-centre-shrewsbury-08-02-2025

“Poncha” is named after the Portuguese drink ‘punch’. It features a stellar quartet line up starring some of the UK’s most in demand jazz musicians, saxophonist Julian Siegel, drummer James Maddren and Costley-White’s long time collaborator bassist Conor Chaplin, who appears on both of the guitarist’s earlier album releases.

The music is influenced by American jazz and also by Brazilian and Cuban music and the seven original compositions are informed by Costley-White’s life experiences, love of literature and his travels to various parts of the globe. His album notes, which accompany the press release but do not appear on the actual album packaging, offer valuable insights regarding the influences and inspirations behind the individual compositions.

I assume that the title of the opening track “M-Face” is a reference to the influential M-Base movement of the 1980s / 90s pioneered by New York based musicians such as saxophonists Steve Coleman and Greg Osby. The asymmetric grooves and broken beats certainly suggest this as Siegel cuts across them with bursts of blues inspired tenor sax melody before handing over to Costley-White for the first solo. The saxophonist then takes over as the featured soloist before passing the baton to the impressive Maddren for a concluding drum feature. The combination of complex rhythms with a catchy melodic hook sometimes reminds me of Partisans, the much missed quartet that Siegel co-led with guitarist Phil Robson. This was unit that featured the same instrumental configuration as the Costley-White quartet and featured Thad Kelly on bass and Gene Calderazzo at the drums.

“Gozo” was inspired by summers spent on the island of the same name, part of the Maltese island group. Costley-White describes Gozo as being “barren but beautiful”, a view that I can concur with having made several visits to Gozo myself, albeit more than twenty years ago and before the Azure Window collapsed. This is a more relaxed affair that combines bossa rhythms with a beguiling tenor sax melody. Costley-White’s solo is warm and conversational, but harmonically sophisticated and together with Chaplin and Maddren he also provides a rich sonic backdrop for Siegel’s pleasantly meandering tenor sax ruminations.

“Noites no Porao”  (translating as “Nights in the Basement”) also draws on Brazilian influences with Costley-White citing the inspiration of Choro musicians such as Jacob Do Bandolim and Pixinguinha. Also mentioned as an influences for this piece is the late, great American saxophonist Joe Henderson (1937-2001). Maddren introduces the piece at the drums, his sophisticated brushed grooves subsequently underpinning Siegel’s breezy sax melodies. Costley-White is featured on acoustic guitar, his nimble picking displaying considerable dexterity. There’s an irresistible joyousness about this piece, with Costley-White also citing Loose Tubes, and saxophonist Steve Buckley as influences on the coda.

The geographical and musical centres of attention shift to Cuba for “Tumbao Tres”, a composition that makes use of the Cuban Tumbao rhythm. It begins as a gentle conversation between guitar and tenor sax, before picking up speed and expanding into the titular rhythm following the introduction of bass and drums. Siegel is the featured soloist but all four members play their part in this fiendishly complex piece, with Maddren’s drums playing a prominent role in the arrangement. To give you an idea of just how tricky this piece is here’s an excerpt from Costley-White’s album notes;
“The melody ascends through all 12 chromatic tones, one per bar providing a 12 bar sequence which begins as a traditional 3 sets of 4 bar phrases, and is then flipped into 4 sets of 3 bars, setting the saxophone improvisation off into a dancing triplet groove. The climax of the piece features a montuno style melody on the guitar played beneath the saxophone solo, ending with raucous drums over the original ascending melody”.
For us listeners maybe it’s a case of forget the theory and just sit back and enjoy the music.

Costley-White’s next composition draws its inspiration from the world of literature. “Sputnik Sweetheart” is named for the novel of the same name, written by the Japanese author Haruki Murakami. The tune is a genuine ballad featuring the gentle keening of the leader’s guitar allied to the delicate melancholy of Siegel’s tenor sax. It’s arguably some of the most convincing ballad playing that Siegel has recorded and Costley-White praises his colleague’s” heart wrenching tone”. The leader’s guitar solo unfolds in patient, unhurried fashion and he’s followed by Siegel’s subtly probing sax. Chaplin and Maddren provide empathic support on double bass and brushed drums.

As its title might suggest “Inside Good, Outside Bad” was inspired by the Covid lockdown and the first half of the piece represents the claustrophobia and paranoia of that period. It opens with a dramatic cymbal crash from Maddren and evolves into a conversation between bass, guitar and sax, underpinned by the drums. Chaplin’s bass lines are intended to represent questions that receive ambiguous answers from the guitar and sax, while Maddren’s drums are an ominous rumble. Eventual freedom comes as the tune evolves into a twelve bar blues that allows soloists Siegel and Costley-White to stretch out at length, finally liberated from earlier restrictions. Chaplin is also featured as a soloist for the first time with an agile and dexterous excursion on double bass.

The album concludes with “YouSod!”, a tune based on Central American rhythms and the harmonies of a well known jazz standard – but the composer’s album notes don’t actually tell us what this is. “The title YouSod is a near anagram of the first letters of the title of this classic songbook tune” Costley-White teases us. I still haven’t figured it out and in the other reviews that I’ve read of this album no other writer has even attempted a guess, some them omitting to even mention this final track at all. Sorry Nick, but you’re just going to have to tell us.
Musically speaking it’s one of the most energetic pieces on the album and the one that is most obviously in the bebop tradition as it bustles along with a tricky bop style head providing the jumping off point for agile,  lively solos from Siegel, Costley-White and Chaplin, the bassist let loose for a second time. Maddren handles the complex rhythms with his customary assurance and also enjoys an exuberant drum feature.

“Poncha” represents the first Costley-White’s album to be comprised of all original material and as such is his most significant release to date. It reveals him to be a composer of considerable intelligence who deploys his wide range of influences subtly and skilfully. He has assembled an all star band to interpret his compositions and the standard of the playing is exceptional throughout. As a guitarist Costley-White is a fluent soloist and a skilled accompanist, providing the perfect harmonic framework for Siegel to work around. The guitarist and saxophonist make a good team, as do the in demand rhythm section of Chaplin and Maddren.

Costley-White’s compositions are consistently intriguing, particularly rhythmically and harmonically, and are flawlessly played, although to these ears the music can sound a little over academic and bloodless at times, despite the undoubted abilities of the players. It may just be that this is Costley-White’s style, although I would like to think that this quartet could really catch fire in the live environment and take the music to another level. I’d certainly welcome the opportunity of finding out, I really enjoyed Costley-White’s contribution to the recent Brandon Allen show in Shrewsbury. Despite these minor reservations “Poncha” is very much recommended.

from www.thejazzmann.com