NEIL COWLEY TRIO - Displaced (2006)

When it comes to Jazz music it’s really been some pianists who’ve opened the doors for me rather than the more textbook saxophonists or trumpeters (although there are now plenty of those I like too). The main thing you need to know about Neil Cowley, other than his keyboard genius, is that he’s classically literate but has also played extensively with The Brand New Heavies and Zero 7; it’s a set of differing influences that serve his Trio music well. This album was their debut album and they definitely found their feet from the off.

Opener ‘Little Secrets’ is propelled on a funky little bass line and then it’s the same trick with ‘How Do We Catch Up’; a repetitive, pumping bottom end and the most insistent piano figures layered over and over, subtly different each time, progressing...blooming...grooving, then kicking out all over the place with damaging chords bashed out as drums thrash increasingly complex patterns yet remain funky. It may not read like the greatest thing on paper but I hope it comes across a little; Neil Cowley’s brand of Jazz gives the form a good name in the 21^st Century for my money. The album actually ends with the ‘Entity Mix’ of ‘How Do We Catch Up’. It’s no major improvement, there’s a bit of added production but what it could do is provide a way into this music for the Jazz-Wary, putting subtly more emphasis on the rhythmic side to the sound.

There are slower tunes but even they never stand still, always giving off the vibe of a tuned-in trio cutting loose where anything could suddenly spark off and take the piece in another direction. They achieve this without ever sounding self indulgent or tedious as well; it’s not always you can say that with Jazz. There’s very little ‘over-playing’ either, you know where it sounds like a player trying to squeeze as many notes into as short a space of time as possible. That doesn’t occur here; in fact Cowley shows real restraint as can be evidenced on ‘Mourn’ with its sustained notes doing exactly what the title suggests.

Best of all for me is that ‘Displaced’ is the sound of someone really at home just playing incredible piano. Groovy piano with lovely meaty chords as well as the more classical styled passages. As first albums go (in terms of my own buying) this is one that leaves me wanting a lot more and I’ve got a feeling, after seeing Cowley earlier this year, that there is even better to come.

Essex Boy Rating: 7/10