The Vortex Jazz Club, 11 Gillett Square, London N16 8JH | Bookings 020 7254 4097 | Enquiries 020 7993 3643 | Email Info at Vortex

CD reviews

New cd releases

 

Browse CD reviews

A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  I  J  K  L  M  N  O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  X  Y  Z 

Join the Vortex
email list

To receive monthly gig details, news and ticket offers.



RSS feeds

For news, gig and CD reviews and information about the club.

Click on the link below to get the subscribe address
Vortex news

For more informaton about RSS see the
RSS help pages

 

The Convergence Quartet

Live in Oxford

FMRCD223-0307

This band should be familiar to Vortex patrons, having played at the club in November 2006, during the tour that produced this album, recorded live in Oxford.

Their music straddles the border between structure and freedom, moving uncontrivedly from prearranged but relatively sketchy 'heads' (often a mere hint of a melody or a repeated motif) to freely improvised passages skilfully utilising the entire range of sounds and textures, from quiet skittering to full-throttle free-for-alls, available to a band comprising cornet/flugelhorn (Baltimore-born Taylor Ho Bynum, an ex-Braxton student who has played with the Aardvark Jazz Orchestra among others), piano (Alex Hawkins), bass (Dominic Lash) and drums (Harris Eisenstadt, from Toronto).

The telling exploitation of contrast (both stylistic and dynamic) is perhaps the band's greatest collective strength (on this album, 'Convergence' ä to take a representative piece ä includes both an insinuating, quietly stated theme and roiling free passages), but individually, too ä Taylor Ho Bynum incorporating everything from woozy smears to spearing runs into his playing, Alex Hawkins gunning the gamut from splashily percussive to pianissimo, Dominic Lash judiciously balancing steady support with solo excursions, Harris Eisenstadt driving the whole via everything from powerhouse rock-like beats to the subtlest of understatement ä the band rivet the attention just as successfully on this recording as they did at their Vortex gig.