Fans of fine jazz quartet playing will enjoy this album.
Self-Published (available from streaming platforms)
Kevin Lawlor (drums); Joseph Leighton (guitar); Dave Jones (piano); Florian Kockott (double bass)
Recorded Kevin Lawlor home studio 20 August 2023
This album somehow slipped under our radar when it was released, but the music is so good that it’s more than well worth a late review. Kevin Lawlor is an Irish drummer, who is also director of jazz and drum tutor at County Wexford School of Music. This is his fifth album as leader. Guitarist Joseph Leighton is a rising star of the Irish jazz scene, who currently lives in London. English pianist Dave Jones has played in numerous ensembles and also composes music for TV and radio. German bassist Florian Kockott makes up the quartet.
It helps that prior to recording this album, all four musicians had played together in various formations – Joseph Leighton had led a trio that included Lawlor and Kockott, and Lawlor had played in a trio with Kockott and Jones. There are five tunes, all composed by Lawlor, with a running time of forty minutes. Most tunes are around the 7 to 8-minute mark. Lawlor is an excellent drummer, whose drumming is more about making the music work than highlighting his own playing. He never dominates the overall sound, but yet remains the driving force behind the band, along with bassist Florian Kockott, who deserves to be better known on the jazz scene.
The opening number, ‘No Socks,’ highlights the band’s talents, both collectively and individually. It has a quirky opening, starting off with a guitar riff that sounds like the intro to a Wes Montgomery number, before morphing into a gentle, sweeping section that flows like a river slowly merging with an estuary. There’s another transformation as the tune switches to a swinging bebop number, with Kockott’s 16th note pulse supporting Jones’s Monk-like staccato chords. Jones also plays an enthralling piano solo, full of twists and turns, before Leighton lets loose with a tasteful solo that suggests his playing is part of a lineage that includes Wes Montgomery, George Benson and Zachary Breaux. At the coda, the piece comes full circle, with a repeat of the slow intro section.
The ten minute-long ‘’This Too Shall Pass,’ is a ballad inspired by the Covid pandemic, when many people wondered if life would ever get back on an even keel. It’s the album’s longest number, at a little over ten minutes in length. The highlight is Kockott’s solo, which ably demonstrates that the bass can be both a melodic and rhythmic instrument. ‘Little Ones’ is another swinging number, although with less energy than the opening tune.
‘The Island’ begins with Leighton playing a funky little guitar riff accompanied by Lawlor’s gentle cymbal taps, before settling down into syncopated marching beat. Jones plays an energetic piano, slowly moving up the keyboard and reaching a pitch. Leighton follows on with a long, spiky solo that is ably supported by drums and piano, which together build up the tension behind him. It’s comping at its best. Kockott’s bass provides the foundation for this excellent piece. Lawlor plays a lively drum solo over a guitar vamp, before the guitarist plays out the piece.
As impressive as the music has been so far, as far as this reviewer is concerned, the best is saved for the rest with the curiously titled ballad ‘Juggler’s Dispair’ (which my Google AI helper tells me is an old, obsolete verb for separating a pair). The piece starts off with a short bass solo, and is dominated by Jones’s majestic piano playing, which includes a joyous, circular riff that burrowed deep into this listener’s ears. His piano solo is equally arresting: fast and fluent, with lightning runs, cascading riffs, percussive chord playing and tinkling high keys. Leighton takes over with a graceful solo that builds up to some fast, furious lines at its conclusion. The piece ends on a high with the circular piano riff. This piece alone makes this album worth the price of admission, but there isn’t a weak number amongst it. Fans of fine jazz quartet playing will enjoy this album.
