‘Modus Operandi’… is an explicit statement of how they roll. And roll they do, breathing contemporary life into a 1950s and 60s hard-bop sound
5WS Records 5WSCD0001
Quentin Collins (trumpet, flugelhorn); Vasilis Xenopoulos (tenor & soprano saxophones); Rob Barron (piano, Rhodes piano); Matyas Hofecker (bass); Matt Home (drums)
Recorded in London in February 2025
There is much to like about Five-Way Split’s second album, Modus Operandi. The format alone is enough to raise the pulse with a trumpet-sax front-line (Quentin Collins and Vasilis Xenopoulos) and skin-tight rhythm section (Rob Barron on keys, Matyas Hofecker on bass, and Matt Home on drums), which places the project in esteemed historical company. Indeed, the band’s vision is: “to carry on the lineage of groups like Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers as well as mirroring the New York contemporary-bop scene.”
That they pull it off again will be no surprise to fans of their 2023 debut, All The Way, which attracted a Parliamentary Jazz Awards nomination and made it on to end-of-year best album lists. Here, ‘Modus Operandi’ is more than just one of the track titles on the album, it is an explicit statement of how they roll. And roll they do, breathing contemporary life into a 1950s and 60s hard-bop sound.
Yet the music is very much their own. All but two of the nine tracks are originals with a consistently high quality of writing and a considered range of tone and pace that make the most of the format resulting in a work that is easy to digest and savour. With propulsive workouts, Latin rhythms, danceable melodies, moving ballads, we have all the things you might expect from a well-crafted release of the period, but here played with subtle modern sensibilities that heighten the listening experience.
The interplay is crisp and seamless. No one player dominates in this collective. They all have things to say and together build and embellish the whole within a shared vision.
That vision is clearly felt on the opener ‘Dr. Stol’, which sets out their stall and is perhaps the most controlled and straight-ahead track on the album. Things open up on the uptempo title track, ‘Modus Operandi’, which has a fluid, intuitive energy with an insistent melody, offering scope for exploratory and edged horn and piano solos. It is here that comparisons to the New York contemporary-bop scene begin to reveal themselves and continue to develop through the album.
Underpinned by Hofecker’s warm bassline, ‘Soho Soirée’ has a relaxed bouncing stride, promenading through a hip 50s London with Barron’s smiling piano phrasing and Xenopoulos soloing with Turrentine-like tones. ‘Two Little Alphas’ brings danceable, Latin rhythms kept simmering by Barron, with Collins and Xenopoulos capturing the party atmosphere, before Barron extends his reach to join them.
‘Pandora’s Box’ is a faster-paced workout over a racing bassline with Xenopoulos, Barron and Collins soloing with passion, together with Home’s creative drum solo, before they come back together to bring it home. One of the album’s highlights.
Two standards are included, both arranged by Barron. A delightfully dreamy, ‘Dreamsville’, written by Henry Mancini for the TV series Peter Gunn, revolves around Hofecker’s infectious bass riff, setting the ground for expressive solos from Barron and Collins. On ‘Sunday in New York’, the relaxed dialogue between a soulful Xenopoulos, Collins’ muted trumpet tones, and Barron’s playful keys is absorbing.
On the closer, ‘X.O. Buzz’, a slow tonal ballad, Barron switches to Rhodes piano to paint a gently sparkling firmament as a frame for delicate, sounding horns, gradually nudging a return to reality.
None of these pieces outstay their welcome. Rather you are left wishing they would stay a little longer; a situation that will no doubt be remedied in a live context, where you should catch them if you can.
