Billy Marrows: Dancing On Bentwood Chairs

Recorded in December 2021 following a run of live performances, Dancing on Bentwood Chairs is the first album from the Billy Marrows Band. The release was put on temporary hold as his charity project album Penelope (Self Produced, 2024) was shortlisted for the 2025 Parliamentary Jazz Awards Album of the Year and was then followed by a live version.

The intriguing album title and cover were inspired by the line "My days of dancing on bentwood chairs were over... until now!"—a quote from artwork by Marrows' father, Timothy Morrison. The phrase refers to an art-student prank, involving a flash mob and bentwood chairs, undertaken at a time when practical safety advice may not have been uppermost in the students' minds.

Marrows composed all 12 tracks on the album. His quartet features alto saxophonist Chris Williams Sax, double bassist Huw V Williams and drummer Jay Davis, with Marrows on standard and baritone guitars. Much of the musical inspiration is drawn from Mikhail Bulgakov's novel The Master and Margarita, whose critique of Soviet conformity and atheism led to its suppression by state authorities for many years.

Bulgarov's novel is far from the album's only influence. Marrows' cat also fires his imagination on "The Cock-Eared Optimist," as textures and colors are gradually layered through fluid guitar lines, bass solos, bustling drums and persistent saxophone motifs. "Woland Blues"—named after the Devil character in Bulgakov's novel—features excellent blues-inflected guitar runs alongside Williams' inventive alto saxophone and tight rhythmic interplay.

Confidently shifting between abstract textures and gutsier melodic lines, Marrows' thoughtful guitar work introduces the title track before interlocking with the sax as Latin themes emerge. This develops into a joyous fanfare, but rather than letting the momentum run unchecked, the band deliberately pull back, and approach the idea from different angles before sax and drums drive the track to its close.

Based on Wilfred Owen's war poem Anthem for Doomed Youth, "Anthem for W.O." pushes Williams' saxophone to its expressive edges before gradually unfolding into quiet, searching improvisations between sax and guitar. In contrast, "Speedwell" gets funky with bassist Williams driving muscular bass lines through Davis' more defined beats, while Marrows excels on "Capel Fawnog," where his guitar takes on a grittier, rock-inflected edge. The album closes with "Great Ball at Satan's," as swirling saxophone and guitar lines weave together.

Marrows' compositions offer a rich seam of ideas and themes, with the band thriving on unexpected twists as they move between intimate passages and more expansive, rhythmically expressive sections. Striking an astute balance of improvisation and written material, the album's free-flowing energy makes for an entertaining and absorbing listen, with Marrows' guitar suggesting musical frameworks through stark notes or offering long, fluid lines.