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Louis Vause

Mechanicatastrophe

SABRECD2023

Pianist Louis Vause's previous album, Pianophernalia (Transcopic), concentrated mainly on his solo-piano work, heavily influenced by the likes of Professor Longhair, Dr John, Jimmy Yancey, Fats Waller etc.; this album, on which he is joined by tenor player Louise Elliott, trumpeter John Eacott, bassist Gareth Huw Davies and drummer Dave Bryant, showcases not only Vause's unfussy facility as a blues-based piano player but also his bandleading and compositional abilities.

The title track is an irresistibly rolling boogie-woogie, and there are numerous nods to New Orleans-piano traditions scattered through the album, but there are also moody, after-hours pieces that hark back to another of Vause's previous incarnations, as pianist with Butterfield 8, a refreshingly unpretentious outfit that eschewed the lengthy soloing and Coltrane-ish spiritual questing then (the late 1980s) in vogue in favour of music of film-score-like directness and accessibility.

There is even (in the woozily affecting waltz 'Dark Dark Night') the odd nod to music-hall-type brio, and a touching threnody ('For Jubs'); overall, though, this pleasingly homespun, eccentric album, while appealing mainly to those whose musical tastes are rooted firmly in New Orleans, should also attract anyone who likes jazz served hot and rhythmic, without attitude.