Revival Room - Revival Room (July 30, 2021)

Featuring a selection of Manchester’s top improvisers, Revival Room is comprised of three musicians closely associated with the Efpi family, and with the city’s burgeoning creative improvised music scene – Adam Fairhall (organ), Mark Hanslip (tenor saxophone), and Johnny Hunter (drums). The band is the culmination of a series of long-held friendships: often playing together in various combinations in other projects, the trio were drawn together by shared principles of collaboration. “It's a genuinely cooperative band, where we all have an equal say”, Mark explains. This deeply creative debut album is the sound of a group at once bedding in and breaking out.

The organ trio format has a rich and varied history. The iconic sound of the Hammond organ has historically graced an array of genres, inspiring performers from Larry Young to Emerson, Lake and Palmer. Yet the format has often been overlooked as a medium for exploration, particularly as a vehicle for improvisation and free playing. Revival Room are on a mission to change that, following such contemporary organists as Alexander Hawkins, John Medeski and Daniel Formo. As Adam notes; “I'd been exploring other keyboard instruments for a few years, and the Hammond organ was one that I was trying to get into. I needed to play with people, and Johnny and Mark are both great at jazz, but also have a very inclusive perspective on improv too. The idea was that we tried to explore the possibilities of an organ trio in improvisation, bringing in non-jazz vocabularies as well as referencing parts of the tradition.”

That combination of tradition and exploration becomes an important guiding principle for the group. Thoroughly acquainted with the musical languages of not just organ trios, but the entire post-bop vernacular, Revival Room spin vibrant new tunes with a distinct sound in this exciting study of the format.

'You Funnin Me, Son?' is an immediate step into the band’s noir sound world. The piece (referencing a quote from Ron Perlman’s Hannibal Chau in Pacific Rim) has an off-kilter, Monk-ish vibe, built on an ostinato organ bass. 'Red Room' continues with vivid filmic imagery, referencing Hanslip’s intriguing cover art, generated by hybridizing two distinct images using AI.

The band gradually emerge from the heavy misterioso feel in 'Monobrow', where free playing meets a series of unison statements. “I wanted to write a single line that we all played together”, Hanslip explains. “We arrived at an arrangement for it as a group though. Working like this is home territory for me after being in bands like Twelves and Outhouse, where the composition might be your own, but the arrangement is worked out collectively.” Further contrast arrives in 'Day Of Rest', a straight-ahead jazz ballad: “I tried to make it as simple as possible”, says Hanslip. “I just wanted to write a really simple ballad, with as much clarity as possible.”

Originally written by Johnny for baritone saxophone and snare drum, 'April' later entered the repertoire of his New Orleans-style street band before finding its way into Revival Room's book. Hunter’s compositions put a heavier emphasis on groove, finding the grit and dirt. 'To And Frodo' is similarly groove-focused, and also started life elsewhere: first designed as an exercise to ease Hunter and bassist Seth Bennett into the 5:3 polyrhythm, the group breathes new life into the track on top of this rhythmic bedrock. Fairhall’s 'Pines' brings back the more misterioso mood of his opening tracks, with both himself and Hanslip improvising freely over this harmonically complex ballad. 'Slippy', another Fairhall original, ups the pace - a tricky head section gives way to a sparse sax solo, before Fairhall and Hunter crank up the intensity with some frenetic organ-and-drums shredding.

The album finishes with the only non-original piece – 'Ida Lupino', by prolific American composer and bandleader Carla Bley, and a crowd favourite typically played at the end of Revival Room gigs. The piece was originally written as an homage to the similarly pioneering Lupino, an Anglo-American filmmaker and a prominent voice in the male-dominated landscape of 1950s Hollywood. The tune represents a side of Bley’s compositional style that is smooth and lyrical, slower and calmer than some of her edgier, more unpredictable compositions.

Ending on the smoother side of Bley seems appropriate for a group keen to update, contest and explore. “I guess we're eclectic musicians”, says Adam. “Johnny and I have been involved in the creative side of the jazz scene in Manchester, and the free side as well, for quite a few years now - and it's really great that Mark has embedded himself in the Manchester scene too now that he’s based in the north.” 

1. You Funnin' Me, Son?

2. Red Room

3. Monobrow

4. Day Of Rest

5. To And Frodo

6. April

7. Pines

8. Slippy

9. Ida Lupino

Adam Fairhall - Hammond B3 organ

Mark Hanslip - tenor saxophone

Johnny Hunter - drums

Recorded in Leeds on 1st and 2nd August 2018

Engineered, mixed and mastered by Michael Ward

Artwork by Mark Hanslip

Sleeve designed by Ten

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Nat Birchall - Cosmic Language (JAZZMAN RECORDS 2018)

Cosmic Language sees the UK-based saxophonist, composer and arranger return to Jazzman Records with a cross-cultural approach: an exploration of the parallel musical paths of jazz and Indian ragas. Here he takes influence from spiritual jazz forebears such as Alice Coltrane and Yusef Lateef and introduces the Indian harmonium to his band, where it takes the place of the piano. Making new connections to realise his transcendental ambitions, it's a logical next step in making music as spiritual cleanser. 

The idea for the album was spawned from a one-off performance at a meditation centre, the Maharishi Golden Dome in West Lancashire. Seeking to bring a band set-up that was fitting to the quiet-minded setting, Birchall brought the harmonium with him. A small pump organ, it's an instrument he'd been in possession of for many years but hadn't previously used in his music. Building on the spiritual context of that show, and the associations of that instrument, it led naturally to the musical approach undertaken on the album. 

Both the album and the show which preceded it were recorded with the same tight-knit group of players which have featured on Birchall's previous albums. All members of the group are part of the same like minded circle of Manchester-oriented jazz musicians, sharing stages and acquaintances with the likes of Matthew Halsall (a longtime collaborator with Birchall) and GoGo Penguin. 

Birchall has always channeled wide-ranging ideas into music that's simple to understand, and this album is no exception. Album opener 'Man From Varanasi' is an ode to Bismillah Khan, one of Birchall's heroes of Indian music who hailed from the northern Indian city named in the title. It also sees him taking cues from the Indian raga tradition which, as with most other traditional Indian music, is a foundation which underpinned Khan's music. 

Crucially, the ragas tap into the idea of of music as a means of spiritual release. As Birchall explains, The whole act of making music is a spiritual experience. It's during performance and when playing music that I look for a kind of truth. It's with music where I find myself feel closest to attaining that 'enlightened' kind of feeling. On rare occasions I've actually felt as though I was listening to the music being played rather than being involved in making it, almost like an out-of-body experience. 

This natural feeling comes from Birchall's attitude toward jazz music. He sees it as an essential part of day-to-day life: instead of brightly-lit, occasional entertainment in lugubrious concert halls, he considers it an everyday, vital source of inspiration. At a moment where jazz-influenced music is undergoing creative renewal and wider appreciation, it's an important perspective that's found resonance elsewhere. His experiences and the world around him are filtered through his music, and he looks to have his music – be it live or on record – absorbed in the same quotidian way. To me, it's an integral part of society, an everyday thing, he says. You should hear the music every day. 

1. Man From Varanasi

2. Humility

3. A Prayer For

4. Dervish

Bass – Michael Bardon

Drums, Percussion – Andy Hay

Harmonium – Adam Fairhall

Tenor Saxophone, Percussion – Nat Birchall