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Instrument: Band / ensemble / orchestra
Slowly Rolling Camera: Silver Shadow
by Geno Thackara
Apparently you can roll quite a long way in a decade, slowly or not. To jump from Slowly Rolling Camera's self-titled debut (Edition, 2014) to Silver Shadow feels like hearing two different bands entirely. Granted, they switched from vocal songs to all-instrumental pieces along the way, so just about any outfit would sound completely changed. Besides that obvious shift in tone, though, this trio's electro-jazz-hop fusion has also come a long way in itself--and yet to those who might have ...
Continue ReadingSlowly Rolling Camera: Flow
by Geno Thackara
At first glance, it looks like an album they were always destined to make. Natural flow has been one central characteristic of Slowly Rolling Camera since the start. From their beginnings in quasi-trip-hop/jazztronica fusion, through a shift into a picturesque instrumental outfit, they have always been effortlessly fluid and comfortable with a good slow burn. They have seemed to be following a sort of elemental theme as well, with Juniper (Edition, 2018) setting down some earthy roots and Where the ...
Continue ReadingSlowly Rolling Camera: Where the Streets Lead
by Geannine Reid
Slowly Rolling Camera is a jazz ensemble. Its core is pianist-composer Dave Stapleton, producer Deri Roberts, vocalist-lyricist Dionne Bennett, and drummer Elliot Bennett. Their newest album Where the Streets Lead is a follow-up to their acclaimed album, Juniper (Edition Records, 2018). The album presents eight tracks with a large ensemble, including an 8-piece string section and a list of world-class guests including Mark Lockheart, Jasper Høiby, Verneri Pohjola, Chris Potter, and Sachal Vasandani, as well as the band's regular guitarist ...
Continue ReadingSlowly Rolling Camera: Where the Streets Lead
by Chris May
You might imagine jazz musicians are well suited to run record companies, for risk taking and creativity are fundamental to both activities. Mostly, however, musician-led labels have unhappy histories. Either the musician is not from the top drawer and their A&R skills suffer accordingly; or they lack the administrative skills to run a business enterprise effectively. Bassist and composer Charles Mingus was an example of the latter. But just occasionally the combination works. Trumpeter Charles Tolliver and pianist Stanley Cowell ...
Continue ReadingSlowly Rolling Camera: Where the Streets Lead
by Geno Thackara
When you're not sure which street to take, why not take several and see where they all lead? The inability to decide might just turn into the strongest asset in the right hands. It's always worked just fine for Slowly Rolling Camera, who have always remained too busy carving out a picturesque one-of-a-kind niche to actually bother pinning down what it is they do. Following on from the superb turning point of Juniper (Edition, 2018), which reinvented the ...
Continue ReadingSlowly Rolling Camera: Juniper
by Roger Farbey
It would be just too facile to contend that the music produced by Slowly Rolling Camera is in the same ball park as, say, Air, Massive Attack or Groove Armada. For while it's partially true to assign the trip hop epithet to SRC, that shorthand does this trio (comprising, Dave Stapleton, Deri Roberts and Elliot Bennett) a disservice. The group's musical lineage undoubtedly extends way further back, even beyond Soft Machine, Weather Report or Terry Riley. The use of saxophones ...
Continue ReadingSlowly Rolling Camera: Juniper
by Geno Thackara
If Slowly Rolling Camera isn't already working on a film score or two, then some director somewhere is really missing out. The Welsh outfit occupies a beautifully lush spot in the music world at the intersection of jazz, trip-hop and soul-soothing electronica. It's sweeping yet intimate stuff, vivid and emotional on a widescreen scale in hi-def. This was true for their first two full- lengths as well, but Juniper shows them making a core change and producing their finest outing ...
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