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Richard Glassby: Travels
ByTake "Here, There, And Everywhere" for example, which, by the way, is not Glassby's take on the Paul McCartney-penned song. Instead, the Glassby-original sees the band navigating folkloric changes with dancing rhythm, hymnal ostinati and joyful major melodies. There are gospel and folk-flashes in the chordal improvisation by Pete Johnstone who takes Fergus McCreadie's place on the piano stool. In comparison to McCreadie, who was a standout on Glassby's debut, Johnstone favors deliberate but patiently constructed improvisations over rapid keyboard maneuvers, inducing each cut with a special air of concentration.
"Backwards" and the title track "Travels" could be considered the album's more traditional swingers, with the band seamlessly shifting from Tin Pan Alley progressions to modal constructions at a tight mid-tempo pace, as Glassby lets the cymbals sing and swing. The title tune is an especially accomplished performance which reveals some McCoy Tyner influence in its modal undercurrent, and finds drums and bass in particularly radiant interplay. Kilner's saxophone cries at the top of its reed in the track's vibrant last third.
What really sets this program apart from Glassby's first leader-statement beyond the group's high-spirited performance is the striking compositional inventiveness and versatility, which sees the drummer blending all sorts of jazz strands from the last century with something more primal, more melodically immediate, maybe even more personal. It is there in the main theme of the title piece, as well as in the contemplative subject of the ballad "And Again," delivered on saxophoneand, again, in the folkloric rhythm of "The Path 'A' Head." The latter is an expansive, just under 10-minute long examination of a few-chord vamp which develops into a hard swinger halfway through.
Most of all though, it is there in "Familiar Roads," the album's closer. Overcast with comforting melancholy, a simple melody sits on top of a straight 8-beat, layered into a three-chord cadence. As the song progresses, interplay and intensity increase until they reach a peak with the arrival of a vocal- choir harmonizing in unison (contributed by Fraser McGlynn and The Song Shop), as Johnstone spins a couple of final notes around the progression which, at this point, like a mantra, has acquired a ceremonial character. It is an engaging and emotional finale. If Glassby continues to move forward with these great strides, there is no guessing what he might achieve in future endeavors.
Track Listing
Backwards; Here, There and Everywhere; And Again; The Path "A" Head; Travels; Familiar Roads
Personnel
Richard Glassby
drumsPete Johnstone
pianoMatthew Kilner
saxophone, tenorEwan Hastie
bass, acousticAlbum information
Title: Travels | Year Released: 2023 | Record Label: Self Produced
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Richard Glassby
Album Review
Pat Youngspiel
Travels
Self Produced
Pete Johnstone
Matthew Kilner
Ewan Hastie
Fergus McCreadie
McCoy Tyner