18th August 2011: Partikel recieves great review for Brecon Jazz Festival Headlining appearance

Young super trio Partikel, soon to release their next album ‘Cohesion’ on WWR, will be starting a season of intense touring in support of their new release, ‘Cohesion’ which will be available in the form of advance copies sometime soon, but officially released in January of 2012.  They just got done performing to a very receptive crowd at one of the UK’s biggest international jazz festivals in the amazingly beautiful surroundings of the Brecon Beacons in Wales (other WWR artists were there headlining as well such as Michael Janisch’s Purpose Built Quintet, etc).  Here pasted below is the full ‘play by play’ review of the gig, done so eloquently by a great writer named Ian Mann who writes for his own site called The Jazz Mann.  Ian is a great jazz writer in that he actually brings the reader to the gig, and by the end of the article, you feel somehow that you may have seen/heard the performance.  A lot of jazz writers have agendas (yawn) or just like proving to the reader that they know a lot about jazz by referencing way too many historical jazz figures (which usually has nothing to do with the music they are reviewing) or just try and complicate what they heard by trying to impress with cliche lines or overwriting with big words (which also usually have nothing to do with the music they are reviewing). Consequently, the reader has no idea what actually happened at the concert!  Ian, however, is all about the music, reports across the scene with no discrimination against any style of jazz, and is a welcomed presence on the UK jazz critic scene for both readers and musicians alike.  His site is HERE and is highly recommended.  The article on Partikel is below, or on his site.

Saturday at Brecon Jazz Festival, 13/08/2011.

Thursday, August 18, 2011

SATURDAY AT BRECON JAZZ FESTIVAL, 13/08/2011.

Saturday at Brecon brought improved weather (Friday had been drizzly and unseasonably chilly) and another raft of difficult choices about who and what to see.

PARTIKEL

I began with Partikel, a young London based saxophone trio who had impressed me with their eponymous 2010 début album (see review elsewhere on this site). This followed on nicely from my final show on Friday, a trio led by the French bassist Stephane Kerecki and also featuring saxophone and drums. The Kerecki group had been quiet and considered but Partikel, led by saxophonist Duncan Eagles, offered a wholly different take on the saxophone trio with their free-wheeling but highly melodic improvisations.

Initially I was surprised by just how youthful the trio are. Eagles belies his boyish, bespectacled appearance with a huge tenor sax tone that is given suitable propulsion by the muscular bass lines of the equally youthful Max Luthert and the powerful, highly colourful drumming of the slightly older Eric Ford. The trio update the tradition of Sonny Rollins with an almost rock sensibility and they consistently strike just the right balance between structure and freedom. The opener “Follow Diversion”  is scheduled to appear on the trio’s second album “Cohesion” which will be released on bassist Michael Janisch’s Whirlwind record label later in the year. Partikel will be touring in the autumn to release the new album and we’ll let you have the dates as soon as we have them. The new record will again feature the distinctive artwork of Alban Lowe.

All of the material on the trio’s first album came from the pen of Eagles but “Cohesion” will also feature the writing of Max Luthert. The bassist’s attractive composition “Assam”, the title a comment on his compulsive tea drinking habit, featured Eagles on soprano, his playing ranging from the airy to the acerbic. The tune was also something of a showcase for Ford who introduced the piece at the drum kit and later enjoyed a series of extended breaks. He supplements the range of the conventional kit with an array of small percussive devices (cowbell, woodblocks etc.) which help to give him a highly individual sound.

“Oojimaflip” from the first album, with Eagles back on tenor, was a good representation of the trio’s virtues with some powerful but always melodic playing and a high degree of interaction between the members of the group.

Drummer Pharaoh Russell’s distinctive name makes him a frequent dedicatee of other people’s tunes (Polar bear’s “Drunken Pharaoh for instance). I’m pretty sure that Partikel’s “The Blood Of The Pharaoh” is another with Ford introducing the piece at the drums and with Eagles’ tenor beavering away with a series of nagging phrases. A solo bass interlude by Luthert provided the bridge into “Market Place” with Eagles switching to soprano. The sound of his soprano dancing above Luthert’s bass rumble and Ford’s polyrhythmic drumming sometimes reminded me of the great Dave Liebman, not a bad role model.

Luthert’s resonant solo bass introduced the ballad “Conquistador” from the trio’s début album with Eagles’ tenor tender and breathy. However the tune took off part way through with turbo charged tenor erupting over a backdrop of polyrhythmic, mallet driven drumming.

The next tune was unannounced but boasted a song like structure as did “Cryptography” from the trio’s début. Eagles suggested to me that the more soulful, song like elements of his playing were in part informed by the music of the great alto saxophonist Kenny Garrett, currently something of an Eagles favourite.

Another new tune, “Optimist” ended the trio’s set on an appropriately high note. Partikel had seized the moment and come up with an exciting, brilliantly played set that helped get my Saturday off to something of a flyer. The quality of the new tunes suggest that the band’s second album is going to be well worth waiting for and I shall endeavour to catch them again on their Autumn tour. If they keep producing live performances of this quality the buzz surrounding Partikel should continue to grow.

Immediately after this Eagles had to rush off to the Market Hall to appear with Derek Nash’s jazz cum funk outfit Sax Appeal. He later told me that if anything this was the more difficult gig as it entailed having to sight read some pretty tricky Nash charts. All part of the learning curve though, and if somebody of Nash’s calibre rates Eagles’ playing it’s pretty certain that he’s destined to be a significant figure on the UK jazz scene.