At Pizza Express Live In London (PX Records)
Native Dancer
Released May 19, 2023
Jazzwise Top 50 Albums of the Year 2023
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About:
One of the most hotly-tipped new bands on the UK scene Native Dancer will release their live album on PX Records, the new label just launched by PizzaExpress iin conjunction with its live music arm PizzaExpress Live. PX Records will release albums from new and established stars of the jazz and soul scene alongside a selection of music from PizzaExpress Live’s extensive archive of live recordings. This Native Dancer live album is the third in the series of releases following those by Mamas Gun and Scott Hamilton Quartet.
Track Listing:
1. Seven Of Swords 07:01
2. Bridge Over Troubled Water 05:19
3. Cristo Redentor 10:04
4. Someday We’ll All Be Free 05:10
5. Hejira 06:07
6. Love 08:04
7. Big Blue 06:37
8. Currents 04:41
9. Where Were You When I Needed You 04:50
10. Noise Above Our Heads 05:05
11. Full Moon Syndrome 04:21
12. Pixies 05:23
Personnel:
Frida Touray: vocals
Sam Crowe: piano, keyboards
Josh Arcoleo: saxophone
Jonathan Harvey: bass
Dan See: drums
Recorded live February 24, 2022, at PizzaExpress Jazz Club, London, UK
Cover by Victoria Topping
Review:
Named after, and taking their inclusive musical aesthetic cue from, Wayne Shorter’s genre-bending 1975 album, Native Dancer draw from a deep stylistic well which embraces everything from jazz and electronica to neo-soul and prog.
This third release (vinyl is due later in the year) on PizzaExpress Live’s new label is bursting with killer hooks, fearless soloing, original songs with structures that take paths less travelled and, at the centre of it all, Frida Mariama Touray’s gloriously rich vocals.
Following a Jarrett-like opening from the excellent Crowe, ‘Seven of Swords’ gradually blossoms into a state of white-hot intensity. Clocking in at over 10 minutes, the quintet’s epic take on Duke Pearson’s ‘Cristo Redentor’ is a tour de force, as is a staggeringly powerful ‘Love’, the first track on their 2015 release, EP Vol. I. The intro to ‘Big Blue’ suggests that we’re heading into a modal jazz workout, before the rimshot kicks in and we step inside a Jill Scott-infused soundworld in which Arcoleo drops one of several coruscating solos. ‘Full Moon Syndrome’ sees the band in full flight, with Touray’s wonderfully expressive melodic line floating over a monstrous multilayered groove.
In addition to the impressive originals there are some well- chosen covers, with the band paying fulsome homage to Aretha Franklin’s magnificent version of ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’, a gorgeous take on the Donny Hathaway classic, ‘Someday We’ll All Be Free’, a beautifully understated interpretation of Joni Mitchell’s ‘Hejira’, plus Stevie Wonder’s ‘Where Were You When I Needed You’.
Peter Quinn (Jazzwise)
