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Clark Tracey Quintet

The Mighty Sas

Tentoten TTTCDS754

The second album from this, Clark Tracey's latest group of young talents, is broadly similar in style (basically hard bop) and approach (compositions and solos spread democractically round the band) to their first, The Calling, but there is an increased assurance in the playing of all parties that comes only from regular collaboration.

As before, there are pieces provided by each bandmember (three from the leader, one each from pianist Zoe Rahman, trumpeter Mark Armstrong, saxophonist Simon Allen and bassist Peter Billington, plus one, 'Nippon Soul', from Nat Adderley), and together they form a pleasingly varied set, the themes typically giving rise to whip-smart statements followed by vigorous, fleet solos impeccably driven by Tracey's rumbustious but unfussily neat drumming, which characteristically manages to combine controlled power with constant alertness to nuance.

Sudden tempo-changes, double-time passages (Simon Allen's tenor especially adept at these) and variations of mood and texture abound, but all are presented with such ease and informality by this intelligently interactive band that the resulting album is a satisyingly coherent statement from a unit that, for infectious entertainment value firmly grounded in the core jazz values of swing, unaffected virtuosity and originality, is one of the most immediately enjoyable on the current scene. Warmly recommended.