Neil Cowley Trio + Mount Molehill Strings, CBSO Centre Birmingham 13.4.12 Live Review

Sitting at my desk, around 10 hours after arriving home from Birmingham, I'm faced with the task of putting last night in to words. It will be a tough ask. Neil Cowley, Evan Jenkins, Rex Horan and Julian Ferraretto's inspired Mount Molehill Strings did things to me last night that very few live acts can manage these days, or in fact ever have. Rather than give a song by song rundown of the night's wonderful and epic proceedings, I want to focus on a few key aspects of the sheer brilliance of Neil Cowley Trio and their approach to the craft of live music.

Earlier in the year, I had the privilege and joy of reviewing the band's new album, The Face of Mount Molehill. Featuring new double bassist Rex Horan, a full on string section, and guitar-toting legend Leo Abrahams, the album was the fullest realisation yet of Cowley's widescreen vision and potential. So strong, in fact, was said album, that I was slightly nervous to see one of my favourite live bands again. How would the songs and sounds translate to the live stage? Would the playful beauty, sheer energy and sometimes visceral attack of the previous live trio be translated to the larger ensemble format? Would they play Clumsy Couple? (A personal favourite). I needn't have worried.

Right from the first strains of opener Lament (once the ever-present Lizard had been placed atop the piano, surveying his estate for the evening), the audience were swept along in a whirlwind journey of emotion. I've never known a band who can provoke such joy in their audience one minute, as with the wonderful closing of How Do We Catch Up, whilst in almost the next breath reducing them to eyes-closed reverie with a slice of melodic beauty like Skies Are Rare. These are songs about spiders who live at the bottom of the garden, men who look like greyhounds, or, more seriously, historical documents at the emotion at the sickness of a newborn daughter, and somehow, without the aid (or should that be hindrance) of lyrics, the desired emotional connection is made time and again.

Second, the musicianship. Oh the musicianship. Every track here had something special. All built on rock-solid foundations of melody, and the kind of chordal structure most writers can only dream of, Jenkins and Horan's flourishes of colour turn each piece in to an opportunity to marvel at the possibilities when a trio are as in sync with one another as these three. The playful glances, winks and smiles between the band members as each song grew and moved, requiring each member to up their game and improvise, within the structures of the original piece, were a joy to behold. These are masters of their instruments, serious musicians, cutting loose and having a little fun, whilst at every step paying homage and respect to their craft and heritage. As someone who writes songs and plays in bands, I am left awed by the free-flowing wonder of how this band connects with each other. The journey it seems they take together, and which they lead the audience on.

It's hard to pick out favourite moments, although the trio of Meyer, Fable and The Face of Mount Molehill which closed the main set, were special. Fable, especially, showcased the sheer depth and breadth of the rhythm section's' power as the ever-changing time signatures came and went with nary an upward glance, before descending into an almost Metalica-like, upright bass-led cacophony to close. Wonderful. Encoring with Clumsy Couple and She Eats Flies, two older tracks, which stood up wonderfully alongside the newer material, was a fine way to finish a wonderful evening. And as the last strains of She Eats Flies rang out, I was left to reflect that I would quite happily do it all again tomorrow, surely the best advert I can give to a band I would say are the best live band I've ever seen.

Find out more about this wonderful band here. Please do check out their new album, The Face of Mount Molehill. In fact, buy a copy of everything they've ever put out if you can. A truly wonderful band.

See the brilliant video for Fable here:

14 April, SOUTHAMPTON, Turner Sims
15 April, CORK, Triskel Christchurch
26 April, BRISTOL, St Georges
28 April, POLAND, Jazz Club Hipnoza
10 May, PARIS, New Morning
11 May, BRUSSELS, AB Club
12 May, AMSTERDAM, MC Theater
16 June, NORWAY, Midtsommer Jazz Fest
29 June, GLASGOW, Jazz Festival
01 July, MOSTLY JAZZ FEST, Birmingham
06 July, MONTREAL JAZZ FEST, Can

Neil Cowley Trio "The Face of Mount Molehill"

Neil Cowley Trio

The Face of Mount Molehill

Naim Jazz

January 23^rd 2012

In these times of throwaway pop strumpets and vacuous candy-coated marketing strategies dressed up as entertainment, it might come as a surprise to find that the restoration of my faith in modern British music would come from an instrumental jazz power trio. Ok, well perhaps it doesn't, but still, hear this: Neil Cowley and his Trio are the best band you've never heard of. Their new record, “The Face of Mount Molehill” is already my favourite for best album of 2012, before the year's even started and, to top it all off, you'll have the best time you've ever had at a show sitting down if you go and watch them on their forthcoming Spring tour.

Enticed yet? You should be. This is Neil Cowley Trio's fourth album, following the progressively more excellent “Displaced”, “Loud.. Louder... Stop!” and “Radio Silence”. Once described as providing “jazz for Radiohead fans” by Mojo, here the band have expanded their sonic palette beyond the trio of Cowley's piano, the effervescent double bass of Richard Sadler, and Evan Jenkins' shape-shifting drums, to include strings which shimmer and pulse throughout the record, alongside flourishes of guitar effects and soundscapes, to produce an exhilirating whole.

Without doubt this is their bsst work, drawing on all the (many) strengths of their previous output, and taking each of them to their logical extreme. It's a joyous romp through three quarters of an hour of technical brilliance, allied to a playful creativity, sense of adventure and simple, sheer joy, which is so sadly lacking as 2011 draws to a close.

One of Cowley's triumphs is the way in which, melodically and harmonically, the songs are so daring, and yet, at all times, maintain an accessability which will have you moving multiple body parts just to keep up with the competing polyrhythms, twists and turns. Neil Cowley Trio may be the only bombastic jazz trio whose songs you'll hum in the shower. Shower jazz. Perhaps a new genre is born.

Usually, reviews are peppered with comments on particlar songs, outlining which are the best three or four perhaps, giving the impression that the other songs don't really offer much. In our suck it and see culture, arrowing in on the key moments of a record seems like the desired approach. To do so with “The Face of Mount Molehill” would be to miss out. This is a suite of songs to be consumend whole, a proper album in the true sense of the word. Right from the openeing, restrained washes of “Lament” through to the epic closing moments of 'La Porte' and 'Sirens Last Look Back' this is a record to listen to in one sitting, to sit back and marvel at. Justice would only be served if Neil Cowley Trio's Spring tour is a sold out portent of greater glories to come.

You owe it to yourself to pick this up on January 23^rd.

With thanks to Simon Drake at Naim and Kev Marston at Canonball PR