REVIEW: 21 July 2005 | ||
Curious Paradise | ||
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| Pete Oxley, the Oxford-based guitarist, is a clearly recognisable figure on the stage of the Spin, but as composer and band leader he is more mercurial. A few years ago his group, The New Noakes International, recorded a CD of energetic funk jazz, then in 2003 Oxley wrote a set of new pieces, got together a different set of musicians and made a recording. Then he come up with a name for his new creation: Curious Paradise. A great name for remarkable music played by gifted musicians. The line up of Curious Paradise has changed and the band we heard at the Spin last week was largely the one that made a second CD, a live recording at Oxford’s Zodiac in June 04. This recording also comes with a splendid DVD of several of the pieces played live. The mercurial aspect of Oxley’s work is how effortlessly he seems able to move from the solid groove of his earlier CD to something so different with Curious Paradise. This is almost a concept album with all the titles connected to the weather ( English of course) and a set of pieces that are a cunning example of how well jazz can absorb other musical idioms. Folk and pastoral are the words that come to mind when listening to Oxley’s new creation but his compositional skills have fused these ideas into music that is still very definitely jazz. Certainly hiding in the shadows is the groundbreaking music of Pat Metheny and it is to Oxley’s credit that he is able to take something from Metheny and come up with music that is new and individual. Curious Paradise is fronted my Pete Oxley on guitars and Mark Lockheart on saxes and bass clarinet, the low clear sounds of the clarinet giving many of the pieces a wonderfully ethereal feel. Behind these two were Russ Morgan, drums and Steve Watts, bass along with, on this occasion, Phil Peskett, keyboards. The evening started with numbers from the CD including the beautifully intense ballad Aurora’s Effect with Lockheart on tenor. Like all the Curious Paradise pieces this is not just a 32 bar tune with improvisations but a more complex piece of writing in which the tune appears and reappears through other written and improvised sections. In the second half of the evening we heard more of Phil Peskett on keyboards. A player with a great sense of harmonic intent and the restraint to build a solo towards an exciting climax. In a new Oxley piece, The Gruffollo, Russ Morgan, who had holds the rhythm with absolute precision, got the chance to demonstrate his solo skills. It wasn’t until the band came in with the tune that it became clear how imaginatively Morgan had given us a percussion interpretation of the melody. Throughout the evening Steve Watts played complex and unerring bass lines that with Morgan’s drumming gave all Oxley’s pieces a vibrant carpet over which the saxes and guitar could run. It was fitting that this band were allowed the time to play an encore and that this was Metheny’s Last Train Home. A tribute to a great composer from another whose writing continues to burgeon. I look forward to further Oxley creations. © Paul Medley | |
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