Somebody once said there is no such thing as bad publicity, and Neil Cowley  would certainly agree. The album title comes from an Observer review of the BBC Jazz Awards last year, when it is fair to say Cowley’s music was not to the entire satisfaction of the representative of the Fourth Estate in question. A matter of 48 hours later I was at the North Sea Jazz Festival, where the trio brought the house down and had a standing ovation. It was a young audience, and it is fair to say the Observer reviewer is somewhat beyond the age of consent, so it says a lot about the changing face of jazz here in the UK. You only have to go back in jazz history to see how the music has confounded the most well meaning of commentators – the traditionalists when big bands came along, the big band writers when bop came along, the bop-oriented critics when free jazz came along and so on.

In fact, the Neil Cowley Trio, along with label-mates on the new Cake imprint, The Blessing, have their roots in dance (in Cowley’s case, The Brand New Heavies and Zero Seven; in The Blessing’s, Portishead). Both are well aware of the hypnotic power of  rhythm and there is some powerful stuff on Loud... (‘His Nibs,’ ‘We Are Here To Make Plastic’) but there is no shortage of more reflective pieces which show a more considered side that was only glimpsed in 2006’s award winning Displaced. Tracks such as ‘Dinosaur Die’ (a riposte to The Observer) or ‘Streets Paved With Half Baguettes Pt 2’ (what a great title) are more chill-out than dance and have indelible melodies which Cowley seems to excel at.
Stuart Nicholson

This review is from Jazzwise Issue #117 to read the full review section and receive a Free CD Subscribe Here...