First Conversations

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Luke Purbrick

Label: Self Produced
Released: 2022
Views: 344

Tracks

There's A Hole (Dog?); Lullaby; Strongbow By Moonlight; Sea, Swallow Me;

Personnel

Additional Personnel / Information

Mixed and mastered by Joe Newman and Jim Purbrick. Stream or buy the album on Bandcamp: https://thelpquartet.bandcamp.com/releases

Album Description

The first four conversations from The LP Quartet, featuring Luke Purbrick on guitar, Ben Jones on tenor saxophone, Angus Bishop on drums and Lloyd Coote on bass.

I first met Angus, the Rembrandt of drums, at an Ari Hoenig gig at The Verdict Jazz Club in Brighton, the only gig they did last year. I'd been there before the pandemic to see acts such as Xhosa Cole and The Banger Factory, but seeing Ari's band after such a musical hiatus was an incredible experience for both of us. That evening, I asked Angus if he was interested in doing a gig with me and he agreed! He's one of the most sensitive drummers I've had the privilege of playing with and from our first performance together at Presuming Ed's we really worked well together musically.

Having previously played with him before, he recommended bass player Lloyd "No S" Coote, also from the Brighton scene. Lloyd is more motivated to learn and develop than any other musician I've had the pleasure of playing with, it's been a great experience making music with him.

One of the most popular jam nights in Brighton is the Bee's Mouth, held on Mondays for many years by The Hat Trio. Earlier this year, I sat in here with saxophonist Ben Jones. Since then, we've practised a lot together and he has opened my ears to free jazz, a style I hadn't really listened to before. His main musical influence is British saxophonist Evan Parker, and the advanced knowledge of extended saxophone techniques and harmony he has learnt through study of his music is incredibly inspiring to play with and experience. Ben contributed two tunes to the EP, Lullaby and an arrangement of Sea, Swallow Me by Cocteau Twins. His powerful free playing can be heard at the end of the latter, where he and Angus exchange fragments of sound together on an extended free coda. This is one of the most intense tracks on the album, which is contrasted by moments of delicate beauty in his composition Lullaby, an extended improvisation over an eight bar chord sequence.

I am extremely grateful to these guys and Eddie Myer and Jack Kendon of New Generation Jazz for their dedication to this project.

Luke Purbrick