Julian Siegel Quartet, Vortex Jazz Club review — free-flowing sounds from a skin-tight band

Julian Siegel has been reshaping American influences through a British lens for more than two decades. Discipline, fluency and rhythmic thrust remain key, but his writing bears an impressionist stamp; there is space for improv and on both saxophone and bass clarinet he is a personal voice.

This engaging two-set gig featured music from Vista, his long-running quartet’s 2018 album. The evening started with the bouncy motif of “Idea”, played in unison by double bass and Siegel on bass clarinet. Soon, Siegel was diving headlong into a rumbustious melange of military drums and riffing double bass, grumbling in the lower register, squawking and soaring into high-note cries. Five minutes in, piano entered as a pulsating rhythmic force, Siegel’s lines developed angular shapes and the piece arced to a high before gradually returning to the original motif.

Opening salvo fired, the band eased back — Siegel switched to tenor sax and the elegiac melody “I Want to Go to Brazil” took shape. But, as on the album, gentle beginnings and optimistic cadences had a sting in their tail. As the piece evolved, romantic piano ripples morphed to a rumble of two-handed riffs and trills, Siegel’s syncopations edged into discordance and drummer Gene Calderazzo added tension and fire.

The quartet is built on strong melodies, firm harmonic structures and more than a decade of mutual support. Drums and bass play their part — at this gig, substitute double bassist Dave Whitford was introduced as a special guest — but it is the close musical relationship between Siegel’s lead voice and pianist Liam Noble that is key to the quartet’s disciplined free-flowing sound. Noble sensitively harmonised the bittersweet theme of “Song” and it was his shaded voicings and hints of bolero that captured the modernist edge of a brilliantly rearranged cover of Bud Powell’s rhythmically tricky “Un Poco Loco”.

A new composition, with the working title “Something Like This” ended the first set. The lyrical theme sits on pedal-point bass, but as the piece evolved, piano and sax vibrated on the cusp of dissonance, brushes swished sensuously and bass walked steadily underneath.

The second set opened with a fractured motif and the band toying with time, and included the slurs and staggered phrasing of Siegel’s “The Goose”. The gospel-soul groove was infectious, the mood was slightly tipsy and the band were skin-tight. The performance ended with a freshly minted modal composition played at speed.

The highlight of the set and the evening was Siegel’s rearrangement of the late Wayne Shorter’s “Footprints”, now played on bass clarinet and switched to a sensuous 5/4. The quartet were focused, and Siegel’s melodic invention captured the tune’s original inspiration, an inquisitive toddler’s first steps.

★★★★☆

vortexjazz.co.uk