Emma Rawicz At Roscommon Arts Centre

Emma Rawicz
Roscommon Arts Centre
Roscommon, Ireland
June 6, 2025

If the best method to hone one's all-round skills as a leader, soloist and composer is in the live arena, then Emma Rawicz is going about things in the right way. Since releasing her debut album Incantation (Self Produced, 2022) at the age of 19, there has not been a single month when the Devonshire saxophonist has not been on the road. The highways and byways of the UK and Europe will soon be as familiar to her as the colors she sees when she hears music.

Her chromesthesia was behind the title to Chroma (ACT Music, 2023)—an album that garnered hefty media attention; Compositions from that release were augmented by several unreleased tunes before a small but engaged audience at the Roscommon Arts Centre. Snuggled in the center of Ireland, the Roscommon stop was the third gig of an eight-date Irish tour promoted by Ireland's indefatigable Music Network—set to celebrate its 40th anniversary in 2026.

Six-string electric bassist Kevin Glasgow's elegant ostinato introduced "Rebecca"—an unreleased gem that Rawicz' has been polishing on stage for the last eighteen months. For fully seven minutes Rawicz held forth, with Glasgow, drummer Asaf Sirkis and pianist Elliot Galvin providing rhythmic impetus to the saxophonist's solo. Building with patience, the leader's steadily climbing melodic lines found release in tumbling cadenzas. These glissandi rushes provided the thrills, but it was the route charted to these peaks—rhythmically assured and thematically searching—that held greatest fascination.

Rawicz' tightly structured arrangements left generous space for her colleagues to express themselves as soloists. Glasgow delivered a beauty on the 22-minute epic "Quirky," his unhurried lyricism giving way to a fierier response from the leader over broiling rhythms. Sirkis' and Glasgow's infectious groove underpinned a funk-laced solo from Galvin and a wonderfully flowing response from the leader. Rawicz let the collective steam all but evaporate before setting up a three-way vamp that set Sirkis loose. The jazz vamp is a well-travelled device, somewhat predictable even, but the Lighthouse Trio/Soft Machine drummer worked his kit with a rattling joy that was hard to resist.

The quartet went into the break with "A Wide, Wide Sea;" Glasgow delivered a sparkling solo marked by lyricism and economy, before Rawicz shifted quickly through the gears with a barreling improvisation of sustained invention—spurred on by the rhythm section.

There was no let-up in intensity in the second set, with the bustling Wayne Shorter-ish "Rangwali"—featuring terrific solos by Rawicz and Galvin— bleeding into the punchy "Xanadu" for 20 breathless minutes of unrelenting adventure. Highlights came thick and fast, with notable interventions from Galvin and Rawicz, but no doubt more than a few in the audience would have taken note of the unaccompanied intro from Glasgow that got the ball rolling; a natural melodist with a keen harmonic sense and uncommon rhythmic wiles, his solo cast a singular spell.

The lively "Duende" saw Rawicz switch to soprano saxophone. A composition of newer vintage, its dancing rhythms reflected her appreciation of Brazilian music. Back in May 2022, Rawicz was part of the 22-piece National Youth Jazz Collective that accompanied Hermeto Pascoal at the 250th Norfolk and Norwich Festival. "Duende" exuded the uplifting spirit that is a trademark of Pascoal's music, especially in Sirkis' effusive samba-inspired rhythms.

It was an hour into the set before Rawicz took the covers off a ballad with "Honeydew Ginger." Tender and introspective, the spare architecture framed fine solos by Galvin and the leader, on tenor. Reverting to soprano for the "Cowboys and Aliens"—a barnstorming slice of John Coltrane-esque modal jazz that brought the audience to its feet—Rawicz's brilliant post-bop solo demonstrated once again that the hype surrounding her is anything but.

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