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Strictly Smokin’ Big Band – Strictly Smokin’ & Friends: Album Review

5th September 2024

Get hold of and listen to this bold and vibrant album and go with the musicians on a musical journey through contemporary big band music. You will be glad you did.

The Strictly Smokin’ Big Band, with a cast of formidable guest musicians on board, bring the big band sound right up to date on an exciting and dynamic new album.

Release date: Available now

Label: Jazz Sound Records

Format: CD / Digital 

The Strictly Smokin’ Big Band (SSBB) are one of the UK’s leading big bands. Formed in 2003, they are an adventurous ensemble, equally at home in radically reinterpreting a jazz standard, and playing contemporary material. Strictly Smokin’ & Friends is the third of a sequence of crowd-funded albums, and as the title suggests features some stellar guest musicians and vocalists. 

If you imagined that big band music is something a little staid and from another era, nothing could be further from the truth. One has only to think of the amazing music Mike Westbrook has created in this format, or in the area of progressive rock, Barclay James Harvest’s utilisation of the brass section from the Syd Lawrence Orchestra on the Baby James Harvest album, or Jaco Pastorius’s excellent big band tracks on his second solo album, Word of Mouth. Strictly Smokin’ & Friends further makes the case for this being a contemporary, vibrant and creative form of music. 

Opening track, Softly, As In A Morning Sunrise, immediately makes it evident how well recorded an album this is. Play it on streaming or CD and the sound just sparkles, with a stunning separation of the instruments, where all the dynamics and nuances just leap out of your speakers. It’s as if you are sitting in front of the band.  The track itself navigates some tricky time shifts which the band carry off effortlessly. The ensemble sections are astonishing in the musical intensity delivered, while the individual solos featuring Gordon Marshall and Pete Tanton from the SSBB and Michael Lamb (trumpet and the band’s leader and chief arranger/composer) and Mike Lovatt (Professor of Trumpet at The Royal Academy of Music) are superb, seamlessly weaving together some wonderfully melodic phrasing. Mike Lovatt’s solo has a beautiful fluency combined with a soaring, punctuating sound, that gracefully straddles the band’s tempo changes. A wonderful opener.

Cool Struttin follows on, led by Ross Stanley on the Hammond Organ. Ross Stanley is a very gifted player, on both the organ and piano, and has featured in a number of reviews to be found on At the Barrier, including playing with Trish Clowes and Omar + QCBA. Here, Ross’s playing has a relaxed and sophisticated cool, as the blues-based rhythm, provides lots of space, for his twisting and free flowing solo explorations. 

Love For Sale, the Cole Porter standard, completes a trio of outstanding opening tracks. It features Polly Gibbons on vocals in a dazzling vocal performance. When Polly’s voice reaches a higher register, the majestic power that flies out of the speakers is quite breathtaking. A special mention must go to Guy Swinton’s drumming, that adds on top of a bossa nova like rhythm some sparkling cymbal strikes and splashes.

Other album highlights, though all the tracks are excellent, include Bruce Adams cornet work on the Sammy Cahn and Ray Heindorf ballad, Pete Kelly’s Blues. Bruce’s playing sprinkles the air with wonderful melodic idioms and sustained notes that peak and then gently fall. The musical arrangement, as the helpful booklet explains, is based on the original film soundtrack of the same name. It is an arrangement which is supported by a beautifully cinematic musical backdrop, expertly laid down by the players of the SSBB. Daisy Mae, written by the much missed George Duke, has an exhilarating funk drive, with Pawel Jedrzejewski on guitar and Michael Whent on bass leading the charge. Over the top of this, Gareth Lockrane adds some enthralling spiky and expressive flute accents, that add a joyous quality to the piece.

Paul Booth on soprano saxophone is the featured soloist on his own original composition, Twitterbug Waltz, which closes out the album. It’s a dynamic ensemble piece, with striking brass accents and bass guitar and piano runs, interestingly utilising what is termed in the metal world breakdowns, where the tempo suddenly drops a little and space is left for groove based instrumental interludes. Paul Booth’s soprano saxophone is a delight, shooting out melodies and flurries of notes that hang together in the most elegant and seamless of ways.

Get hold of and listen to this bold and vibrant album and go with the musicians on a musical journey through contemporary big band music. You will be glad you did. Worth noting also, is the artwork on the CD release, by illustrator Sean Battle, which is brilliantly eye catching.

View here the Strictly Smokin’ Big Band live in 2020, playing Waltz of the Flowers, with Mike Lovatt on trumpet:

[ Read the original article here: https://atthebarrier.com/2024/09/05/strictly-smokin-big-band-strictly-smokin-friends-album-review/ ]