Empirical provided an excellent start to the Birmingham Jazz season at the CBSO Centre last night.  This was also the first date of their tour to promote the Out ‘n’ In album that is to be released later this month on the Naim label and which is dedicated to their original music inspired by the saxophonist, flautist and bass clarinettist Eric Dolphy, one of the great American players of the 1960s.

To be honest, I wasn’t too sure about Empirical when they first started as a band; they seemed a bit too retro for my taste.  But this version of the band with alto saxophonist Nathanial Facey, bass player Tom Farmer and drummer Shaney Forbes there from the original band now joined by Lewis Wright on vibes is excellent.  Lewis Wright’s vibes really add an extra mellow layer to the overall sound and I also really like the focus on Dolphy.  The mid to late 60s was a particularly fruitful period for American jazz ; there was the second great Miles Davis Quintet with Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Tony Williams, the Coltrane Quartet and Blue Note putting out a whole range of jazz that had moved on from the hard bop movement of the late 50s and early 60s incorporating elements of free and modal jazz.  Artists like Wayne Shorter before he joined Miles, Andrew Hill, Dolphy of course and Herbie Hancock’s first albums as a leader, Joe Henderson etc.  This was a relatively short movement that kind of died away with the development of jazz rock, but it is an area that is definitely worth revisiting.  So I really enjoyed the way Empirical presented their own interpretation of some of the key music of that period, namely Eric Dolphy’s Out To Lunch CD plus other aspects of his music.

I was particularly impressed by the integration of the group, but also very much by Nathanial Facey’s strength as a soloist.  He has clearly studied that era of the music and Dolphy in particular in great depth, but also definitely has his own voice.  Also pleasing to see and hear how well the music was presented with good clear announcements from different members of the band and a willingness to engage with the audience after the gig.   Great stuff!

See also Peter Bacon’s review here on his Jazz Breakfast site

Tags: Birmingham Jazz, Empirical, Eric Dolphy, Lewis Wright, Nathanial Facey, Out 'n' In, Out To Lunch, Shaney Forbes, Tom Farmer

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 19th, 2009 at 11:29 am and is filed under Gig Reviews, Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.