Gateshead International Jazz Festival 2012
Neil Cowley Trio Featuring The Mount Molehill Strings
Nourishing their fondness for grand, commanding sounds, The Neil Cowley Trio with The Mount Molehill Strings ensemble, headed by lead violinist Julian Ferraretto, will perform music from their new recording, ‘The Face of Mount Molehill’ (released early 2012). The Neil Cowley Trio (Neil Cowley on piano, drummer Evan Jenkins and bassist Rex Horan) is one of the UK’s most exhilarating live bands. Their intensely thrilling and dynamic sets, peppered with Cowley’s playful onstage banter, have won them huge critical acclaim and a loyal following of fans.
In 2008, the trio became noted for blurring the boundaries between jazz and other genres, and, dubbed ‘Jazz for Radiohead fans’, they found themselves with a diverse touring schedule that would take them from Glastonbury and the iTunes Festival to the infamous Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club. A TV appearance on Later with Jools, a Mojo cover- mounted CD (a celebratory reworking of the Beatle’s Revolution), and a Guinness commercial inched them further toward crossover status.
In the meantime, dedication to his trio would see Cowley decline various invitations to appear as side man on other projects, although his contribution to Adele’s platinum-selling debut , ‘19’, and in particular his poignantly expressive intro to the stand-out Hometown Glory is now legendary. Cowley’s commissioned piece of music for Nokia’s ‘Play’ campaign, the TV advertisement for their app store, can be heard on TV’s across the nation. More recently, Cowley has collaborated with the Stereophonics on their current album, ’Keep Calm and Carry On’.
‘The Face of Mount Molehill’ represents a significant shift in direction. Not only does Cowley record and tour with strings for the first time, showcasing his remarkable talent as an arranger for strings, but it presents Cowley’s new bassist, Australian Rex Horan.
Listen to Neil Cowley Trio play tracks from their current album ‘The Face Of Mount Molehill’:
Neil Cowley at the Queen Elizabeth Hall
By David Sinclair
Neil Cowley was 10 when he last played here. Now 39, he plays keyboards with acts ranging from the Brand New Heavies to Adele (on Rolling in the Deep). But jazz is a passion too, and as leader of his own trio he has released four albums since 2006. His return to the South Bank with Rex Horan on upright bass and Evan Jenkins on drums for the opening of a tour to promote The Face of Mount Molehill was clearly a special occasion.
Joined by an eight-piece string section and a guest guitarist, Leo Abrahams, the trio put on a show full of zest and invention, but subject to a degree of formal structure that is alien to certain popular notions of jazz. There were no individual solos and very little grandstanding. Applause for individual contributions was not encouraged, although
Jenkins’s drumming fireworks towards the end of Hope Machine deserved recognition.
To begin, Cowley picked out the delicate melody of Lament, his deft hand movements carefully observed by a small plastic dinosaur on top of the grand piano. When Horan and Jenkins joined in, it was with the subtlest and most sympathetic of touches; part of the delight of the show was to see three master musicians playing with such restrained and sympathetic accuracy.
Rather like the Bad Plus, they used rock and pop structures in a jazz context to bring out the best of both worlds, especially on the choppy groove of Hug the Greyhound and the staccato passages of La Porte. The string players added an extra film noir dimension to numbers such as Rooster Was a Witness and a sublime Skies are Rare. They finished with a crashing boogie called She Eats Flies, the jarring final piece in a jigsaw of epic extremes.
Part of Gateshead International Jazz Festival
The UK's biggest jazz festival held under one roof. #gijf12