All answers from drummer Matt Home
Please can you tell us about your new album and UK album launch?
Our new album is called Modus Operandi. which coincidentally is also one of the compositions by our trumpet player, Quentin Collins. We recorded over two days in February 2025 at Red Gables studio in London and had a lot of fun during the process.
In keeping with the last album, it features several original compositions by Quentin, Rob Barron (piano) and Vasilis Xenopoulos (saxes). There are a couple of standard tunes in there including a special Rob Barron arrangement of Henry Mancini’s “ Dreamsville”
We feel like the band has moved forward since our last record; partly from working together extensively, but also there is a more strongly defined and personalised style of writing from each member of the band. We decided on the album title ‘Modus Operandi’ thinking it fit well with the unique writing style each member has.
We haven’t strayed far from the territory of what might be loosely termed ‘Contemporary Hard Bop’ which is where our collective passion lies, but you will also hear some Latin-influenced tunes that keep the music fresh and exciting. We aim to appeal to as wide an audience as possible, whilst keeping a firm footing in the tradition set by our biggest influences such as Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, or the Jazztet.
The album is released on March 13th, on vinyl, CD and digital formats, and our official launch gig is April 27 at Pizza Express Dean Street, which we are very excited about. Our first two singles from the album are available to stream on all platforms throughout February and March.
What other projects are you currently involved in?
I am also involved with a quartet called Soultime, which features pianist Leon Greening, Steve Fishwick on trumpet, and my rhythm-section partner from this band, Matyas Hofecker on bass. We play original material from Steve and Leon, as well as focussing heavily on the writing of Lee Morgan, Bobby Timmons and other Blue Note Records pioneers from the late 1950s and 60s.
What are you currently listening to and what was the last CD or download you bought?
I am listening to three CDs I recently bought. Lee Morgan’s ‘The Procrastinator’ with Ron Carter, Herbie Hancock and Billy Higgins in the rhythm section, and two albums by the great vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson entitled ‘Spiral’ and ‘Medina’ both of which feature one of my current favourite drummers to listen to, the great Joe Chambers. I’m very interested in the music coming out of Blue Note from the mid-late 1960s at the moment.
What is your all-time favourite album and why?
Well, there are too many great ones. I definitely would put Clifford Jordan’s ‘ Starting Time’ (1960, Jazzland) in there.
All the compositions are great- there are tunes in there by Jordan, Kenny Dorham, and Cedar Walton, all of whom play on the record. Albert ‘ Tootie ‘ Heath is one of my all-time favourite drummers and they way the engineers captured his sound on this album is fantastic. You can hear everything he’s playing so clearly. Bassist Wilbur Ware is on this record too and is incredible. i love the way he plays bass solos. The hookup the rhythm section of him, Tootie and Cedar achieved is inspiring. I always tell people who don’t know this record to go out and buy it!
Who has caught you attention recently that we should be listening out for?
I’ve done a couple of gigs over the last year with altoist Alex Clarke who is gaining a lot of well-deserved recognition. She seems to be approaching the music head-on embracing the history and she swings!
I’ve also played couple of her arrangements of standards too which are very well written and a lot of fun to play. Also, I have to give kudos to drummer Robbie Ellison who runs the North London Jazz Collective. As well as being a great talent at the drums, he is doing some great work for jazz in London through his project’s collaborations with others. he runs a gig/ jam session every Wednesday at The Brewhouse near Highbury and Islington, which is a good place to hang out and hear new up-and- coming talent.
Modus Operandi by Five-Way Split is released on Friday 13th March and available from Bandcamp
Click here to read our review
