Trumpet player and composer Henry Spencer is an up-and-coming name on the British scene. A recent graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, he formed his quintet Juncture and crafted this debut album The Reasons Don’t Change specifically with his fellow alumni in mind. So the combined forces of Nick Costley-White (guitar), Matt Robinson (piano, keyboards), Andrew Robb (double bass) and David Ingamells (drums) intuitively interpret Spencer’s original work with a fervor to match his penetrating technique; and the inclusion of The Guastalla Quartet’s string sustenance brings another, integrated layer of richness.
The recipient of Best Newcomer Award at Marlborough Jazz Festival and Help Musicians UK’s Emerging Excellence Award, the trumpeter’s approach is derived from his formative years’ interest in songwriting. Beginnings in pairing music and words came to inform an especially lyrical, even emotional narrative to the mature artistry of his instrumental composition; so much so that, even now, his brand of rock-infused jazz can sometimes be constructed on a wireframe of received poetic phrases which are then discarded.
It’s a method which Spencer finds rewarding – clearly heard in the fluvial, conversational melodies to Spencer’s earliest piece for the album, ‘Remember Why’ – his reasoning being that “lyrics allow us to be unambiguous and openly honest”. The same is true of introspective ballad ‘Never Draw a Line’, whose rising motifs are imaginable as a vocal line, expressing the trumpeter’s pervading themes of positivity, of transforming regret into liberation; and ‘Eulogy (Goodbye Old Chap)’ celebrates a life through contrasting reflection and exuberance.
The physicality of the trumpet, along with its technical challenges, were what first drew Spencer to its possibilities for jazz improvisation. Across these ten tracks, an often blistering, flutter-tongued incisiveness is balanced with the serene depth of flugel, while his occasionally plaintive, bucolic solo personality – heard at the beginning of ‘Joanne’s Diary’ – is able to neatly segue into the fluctuating vistas that this band skilfully interprets. From the first few bars of ‘Hopeless Heartless’ emanates the lush warmth of The Guastalla Quartet, creating a wider soundscape reminiscent of orchestral jazz, and rocky closer ‘The Survivor and The Descendant’ consolidates the dynamic strength of this entire nine-piece as swirling, forte strings whip up a maelstrom of white-hot guitar and trumpet.
Regularly contributing to other projects – including performances with Stan Sulzmann, Jason Rebello, Julian Joseph and also the London Jazz Orchestra – Henry Spencer now brings his first album, as leader, to Whirlwind with a desire to fanfare contemporary jazz’s increasingly broader horizons: “My wish is that listeners might engage with the original emotional and lyrical context of the album, almost as if it were presented by a singer/songwriter, and then relate it to their own experience. That connection is what I find stimulating in improvised music.”
1. Hindsight Can Wait 08:21
2. On The Bridge 07:53
3. Eulogy 07:05
4. Joanne's Diary 05:13
5. Never Draw a Line 05:50
6. Still Open To Confusion 05:18
7. Remember Why 05:05
8. Hopeless Heartless 05:46
9. The Survivor and The Descendant 06:54
Henry Spencer - trumpet, flugelhorn
Nick Costley-White - guitar
Matt Robinson - piano, Fender rhodes, Wurlitzer
Andrew Robb - double bass
David Ingamells - drums
Featuring The Guastalla Quartet
Recorded by George Murphys, Philip Bagenal,
Charlier Morton and Paul Whalley
Mixed and mastered by Dave Darlington
Produced by Paul Whalley and Henry Spencer
Executive Producer - Michael Janisch
Henry Spencer and Juncture dates UK
12th May Bourton Hall, North Dorset
13th May Calstock Arts, Plymouth
14th May Ashburton Live, Devon
15th May North Devon Jazz Club, Appledore
16th May St Ives Jazz Club, Cornwall
17th May Jazz at Dempsey’s, Cardiff
18th May Jazz at Future Inn, Bristol
2nd June Rays Jazz At Foyles, London
