To the Earth (Edition Records)
Dinosaur
Released May 15, 2020
The Guardian 10 Best Jazz Albums of 2020
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About:
Mercury-nominated, British Jazz supergroup Dinosaur return with the announcement of their highly anticipated 3rd album ‘To The Earth’, which is due for release on Edition Records this May.
The new record celebrates a decade of music-making as a band and is accompanied by a further announcement of new EU and UK tour dates, including their most ambitious UK show to-date at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London – full dates below.
‘To The Earth’ is vertiginous in its scope carrying the listener through a vast array of moods and themes, whilst also taking the band into new territories across moments of revelatory spontaneous composition. Tracks such as ‘Slow Loris’ see clarinet-like synth blend seamlessly with Conor Chaplin’s bassline whilst the band effortlessly flit between tumultuous and mellifluous motifs. Whereas further into the album tracks such as ‘Held By Water’ sees the band lean the acoustic sound of the new record into new London jazz crossover domain with drummer Corrie Dick’s drum machine-esque rhythms and pianist Elliot Galvin’s almost ambient electronic swells before developing into a more Middle Eastern-based Trumpet groove. These intricacies and multifarious journeys are described by jazz pianist Liam Noble in the album’s liner notes as being “peculiarly British” with “a lightness of touch and occasional flirtation with silliness, but never too much.”
Laura cites British musicians such as Liam Noble, Chris Batchelor and Huw Warren as well as Norwegian piano trio ‘Moskus’ and more historic artists such as Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus and Miles Davis all as key influences on this music. However, it’s clear that the significance of these influences is found in Laura and the band’s ability to build on these ideas throughout their flexible career of achievements rather than mimic them.
Speaking about the new album, Laura says:
“My discography to date, as Dinosaur and albums under my name, is the result of an unavoidable necessity to express and share a wealth of musical interests – from folk-influenced counterpoint, to song-writing, Stravinsky-inspired harmony to the use of analog synthesis and looped grooves. Whilst this may well dizzy the narrative surrounding my output, jazz (in its most typical form) has always played a huge role in my life and the life of this band.
‘To The Earth’ is simply a collection of joyfully crafted melodies, which we can dive into and explore as improvisers. It makes so much sense that this is the music to surface after a decade of playing together. This way of making music has been there from the very beginning and something we have developed together over the last 10 years. I am constantly knocked out by the musicianship and sense of ensemble I experience in Dinosaur. Playing with Elliot, Corrie and Conor, feels like putting on the most comfortable pair of shoes – where anything from sitting back in the warmth of it all, running with the smallest of ideas to taking risks can be executed with utmost presence … trust. A space in which the sounds take care of us and we take care of them.”
Track Listing:
1. To the Earth (Laura Jurd) 07:26
2. Slow Loris (Laura Jurd) 07:25
3. Mosking (Laura Jurd) 07:31
4. Held by Water (Laura Jurd) 03:24
5. Absinthe (Billy Strayhorn) 06:47
6. Banning Street Blues (Laura Jurd) 05:37
7. For One (Conor Chaplin / Corrie Dick / Elliot Galvin / Laura Jurd) 03:04
Personnel:
Laura Jurd: trumpet
Elliot Galvin: piano
Conor Chaplin: double bass
Corrie Dick: drums
Recorded October 22 & 23, 2019, at Livingston Studios, London by Sonny Johns
Mixed by Sonny Johns at The Nave, Leeds
Mastered by Andrew Tulloch at The Blue Studio
Review:
Anybody accumulating evidence for the existence of old souls could do worse than check out the Hampshire-born trumpeter-composer Laura Jurd’s contribution to jazz in the eight years since her remarkable debut album, Landing Ground. Jurd seems unconcerned by transient fashions or enrolment in any kind of scene, and pursues a private muse that draws on jazz, folk traditions from Europe and the Middle East, and the harmonic language of Stravinsky – yet her work is always spiritedly accessible, and often suggests wordless songs. To the Earth is Jurd’s third release with her Dinosaur quartet, a closely bonded ensemble embodying the jazz axiom that composition and improvisation are an inseparable two-way stretch.
These seven tracks run to barely more than than 40 minutes but Dinosaur make them all count. The title track hooks attention with its opening treble-chord piano splash from Elliot Galvin, signalling Conor Chaplin’s repeating bass vamp, the arrival of a vivacious trumpet melody of folk-dance triplet twists and coolly jazzy resolutions, and Corrie Dick’s implacable percussion pulse.
The dirge-like, ghostly Slow Loris finds Jurd in a voicelike early-jazz mood of muted trumpet sounds and growls (sometimes deepening the brass harmonies on tenor horn), while Galvin solos in unhurried Monkish dissonances. Mosking (also a Dinosaur single release) is a jubilant jig inspired by Norwegian piano trio Moskus. And the classic-Ellingtonian sound of Billy Strayhorn’s languidly slow-swinging Absinthe (the only cover) is tweaked by the most sparing of spacey synth tones from the otherwise unplugged Galvin. Blues and gospel colours seep through the later stages of Jurd’s jazziest Dinosaur album, but this is an open-handed celebration of jazz’s century of eloquence and influence, not its trade secrets.
John Fordham (The Guardian)
