Blow The Fuse Records BTF2515CD

Alison Rayner (basses); Deirdre Cartwright (guitar); Steve Lodder (piano); Diane McLoughlin (saxophones); Buster Birch (drums)
Recorded 21 & 22 May 2024

This CD was recorded live at The Vortex Jazz Club in East London and never intended for public release. All too often what sounds exciting at the time, when roughness, fluffs and missed cues are all part of the club or concert atmosphere, will start to grate and jar after a few listenings. Unless there have been several similar performances, there is no hope of post-production repair editing. But the ARQ musicians have been playing together as a group for twelve years and bassist, bandleader and composer Alison Rayner decided the captured Vortex set was “something very special”.

“While a live album may require some compromises, it offers something unique – a different vibe and energy that’s hard to capture otherwise” she says, after going ahead and releasing this remarkably polished live recording.

I find some difficulty in describing or defining ARQ’s musical genre and style. So, I’ll quote Ms. Rayner: “A unique sound that draws on jazz, folk, pop and Latin influences…with collaborative spirit. ARQ’s chemistry is rooted in enduring relationships.. with musical cohesion credited to the strong bonds developed over decades of collaboration”.

Much as happened with the MJQ, Brubeck groups and Peterson trios – all of whom released classic live recordings which go on giving – ARQ has “together built something greater than the sum of its parts”. Says Rayner. “l wanted the sensibility of a group where you rehearse together and work together. That to me felt very important, to establish a connection, where you’re writing for people in the band. When you work with people for years, you’re really hearing the way they play.”

I’ve seldom heard a group sound so tightly inside each other’s mind pockets. This is not conventional 4/4 swing, or rock, or roll. It’s ARQ playing ARQ with catchy themes, sinuous and plaintive soprano sax a la Art Themen, fluid fusion guitar, full-handed piano and crisply busy drum patterns. Alison Rayner’s string bass has a lovely full tone in the lower register.

All the tracks were written (separately) by Rayner, McLoughlin, Cartwright and Lodder and the group’s followers – heard very obviously enjoying the live gig – will now be able to take home a permanent reminder of Alison’s Rayner’s cheery ‘Espiritu Libre’, the playfully odd  ‘Trip Dance’, the a-bit-like-reggae track ‘Sempahore’,  McLoughlin’s meditative ‘Looking ‘For A Quiet Place’, pianist Steve Lodder’s ‘Hamble Horror’ with tough tenor and some straight swing that he sees as “evoking cinematic heroics”, and Cartwright’s ‘Signals From Space’ which starts with some exploratory radio beeps and progresses to “channelling cosmic wonder with eerie, harmonically rich textures.”

Some background detail:

Alison Rayner’s partnership with Deirdre Cartwright dates back to the feminist rock scene of the 1970s and she has worked with Lodder and McLoughlin for over 30 years. Birch joined the group after meeting Rayner at the University of Glamorgan’s jazz summer school in 1998. ARQ has released three critically acclaimed albums: August (2014), A Magic Life (2016), and Short Stories (2019). The latter earned Rayner an Ivor Novello Composer Award for the track ‘There Is A Crack In Everything’. Winners of the Parliamentary Jazz Award and British Jazz Award for Best Small Group in 2018, ARQ has toured extensively across the UK and Europe.

Some technical detail:  The album was recorded live at The Vortex, London on 21 and 22 May 2024, mixed by Paul ‘PDub’ Walton at the Loft Studio, Surrey, mastered by Peter Beckmann at TechnologyWorks and produced by Alison Rayner and Deirdre Cartwright.

The sound quality is excellent and the music sounds all the better for no obvious edits or mixing trickery.