Jazz UK – August 2008

The-Quartet (hyphen intended) made significant waves in 2007 with its debut Illuminated- an unusual collaboration between UK producer, guitarist and movie composer Jack Hues and classically-trained pianist Sam Bailey. Unsurprisingly, Hues and Bailey like music that invites you to visualise, and though this set veers less wilfully between ‘70s jazz-funk, abstract guitar-blues and warped classical music than Illuminated did, it’s nonetheless a powerful sequel. The theme is a kind of Canterbury Tales, but the story is about psychedelic-rock tales centred on the locality in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Outhouse drummer Dave Smith, one of the key finds of recent years, provides the band with much of its power, there are EST connections in ‘The Check-Out Girl’s Tale’, a powerful outing for Coltraneish tenorist Paul Booth on ‘Plains Rising’ and ECM ruminative-ness on ‘Lights Out”. This band is going places.