The University of Huddersfield’s highly-adaptable Heritage Quay archive centre was converted into the Jazz Café for the first of a series of gigs at the attractive canalside venue.
The initiative has been taken by the revived Huddersfield Jazz organisation and the first guests were the Martin Speake Quartet – alto sax, guitar, bass and drums.
The line-up might have led us to expect a swinging but rather conventional evening of Great American Songbook standards with rounds of solos followed by a concluding repeat of the head. But this was something far more absorbing and enterprising.
Without venturing into the wilds of free jazz or any distance away from underlying harmonic structures, altoist Speake and his colleagues created a series of intriguing soundscapes. Many of the numbers were originals by the quartet leader, but even compositions from canonical jazz figures such as Coleman Hawkins, Charlie Parker, Lee Morgan and Thelonius Monk were given highly idiosyncratic interpretations.
For example, a Parker number, Charlie’s Wig, might have been the basis for some virtuosic but conventional hard bopping. Instead – after an ultra-tight statement of the complex tune played in unison by sax, guitar and bass – the performance went in very unexpected directions. After some blistering arpeggios from the alto sax, a mesmerising solo from highly creative drummer Corrie Dick had an elemental African quality.
There were tales of the unexpected like this all evening and some of the repertoire choices were unusual too, right from the moody, minor key opener, which was apparently the theme from a Hollywood epic movie about Samson and Delilah. The only out-and-out standard was a concluding Some Enchanted Evening.
Many of the Speake originals were composed as memorials to departed jazz luminaries such as John Taylor and Ray Warleigh. There was also a number dedicated to the saxophonist’s daughter and this was a beautiful, dream-like soundscape.
Throughout, the technique and deadly accurate intonation of bassist Conor Chaplin was impressive, but the quartet’s distinctive sound owes most to the approach of guitarist Rob Luft.
Jazz guitar players, even when plugged in, tend to go for a dry, even austere sound, but Luft is happy to exploit the electronic potential of his axe, using sustain pedals and tremolo arm to create some bewitching and atmospheric effects. He showed that he has jazz chops to spare, with some high-velocity solos, but by creating a haunting harmonic backdrop he ensured that the Martin Speake Quartet is an out-of-the-ordinary ensemble.
The next Jazz Café gig at Heritage Quay features the Dan Whieldon Trio, on Saturday, 23 April.
