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Phil Robson

Six Strings & the Beat

Babel BDV 2876

Initially commissioned by Derby Jazz in 2007, the music contained on this album, as its title suggests, features six string players (composer/guitarist Phil Robson, bassist Peter Herbert, violinists Emma Smith and Jennymay Logan, viola player Naomi Fairhurst, cellist Kate Shortt) and 'the beat' (drummer Gene Calderazzo).

Robson is a world-class guitarist, equally at home with the pungently powerful jazz-rock of Partisans or the many-faceted jazz-folk of the Christine Tobin Band as with the more straightahead repertoire addressed by the BBC Big Band, and on this album's ten pieces he runs the stylistic gamut from bluesy slide playing to boppish single-note runs, and from free improvisation to carefully structured solos firmly anchored in hauntingly memorable chord sequences.

His many variations in tone and timbre ­ the moving lament for Katrina victims, 'Louisiana', features an affectingly searing guitar statement; 'Songbird', inspired by Oumou Sangare, sees him playing light-fingered African-style guitar etc. ­ are artfully but uncontrivedly deployed throughout, and clearly represent a genuinely wide-ranging, enquiring musical mind, but it is the power of the compositions and their suitability for the forces at Robson's disposal that really impress.

Thus the virtuosic bassist Herbert is given the perfect platform for his free-improvisational skills in 'Quick Silver', the sonorous but surprisingly gutsy cello of Kate Shortt is tellingly featured; the violins and viola, too, move easily from subtle supporting roles to solo spots; and the two pieces featuring singer Christine Tobin (a touching love song, 'Hold You', and a swooningly lovely wordless vocal, 'Wishing Well') are both highlights of a skilfully programmed set that sounds more impressive and reveals fresh felicities every time it's heard. Strongly recommended.