Foyles bookshop gathers Empirical evidence while Gerald Albright slam-dunks at Pizza Express Jazz Club

First, through an opportunity to see forward-looking jazz group Empirical at Foyles bookshop, immediately followed by a stroll around the corner to Pizza Express Jazz Club for smooth jazz saxophonist Gerald Albright. The experience provided an interesting comparison. Empirical’s gig – part of an on-going six-night residency – was free to the public on the understanding that listeners complete a feedback form to describe their experiences on hearing each number, an initiative designed to help the group develop material for their new album. Unsurprisingly, creative thinking and artistic integrity abounded with great success, whereas Albright – who was in London to present his new album Slam Dunk – was more a master showman presenting his commercially successful established formula.

Empirical performed original compositions by Nathaniel Facey (sax), Lewis Wright (vibes) and bassist Tom Farmer, giving the quartet (completed by drummer Shaney Forbes) three different writing voices. Chief contributor Farmer’s most memorable piece, ‘Initiate’, was constructed around a palindromic number (1, 2, 3, 4, 3, 2, 1), typified the group’s search for imaginative writing techniques which audiences might emotionally relate to. While introducing the piece, Farmer encouraged the audience to clap his palindrome to which the band began playing, thus offering listeners a direct path into the composition. Similarly, improvised solos appeared to mix uncompromised musical integrity with melodic lines that told a story, thus holding audience attention. Wright was particularly accessible, perhaps in part due to the visual layout of his vibraphone bars, but also because of arresting shifts in rhythmic intensity and sweeping lines which encompassed the entire instrument. The result was that Empirical’s lengthy single set gig flew by as an absorbing series of engaging musical moments.

Albright left no table unoccupied at Pizza Express Jazz Club’s first smooth jazz date of the year. The saxophonist was played on-stage by his band complete with horn phrases on top-synth by keyboardist Oli Silk, an intro that quickly settled into a funky groove that typified the first three numbers including title track ‘Slam Dunk’. His band kept it tight with five-string slap-tastic electric bass by Orefo Orakwue and funky backbeats courtesy of drummer Andrew Small. In a performance archetypal of smooth jazz, Albright worked his audience through the dramatic use of his alto sax’s upper register during largely vamp-based solos. From this base, Albright moved quickly through the gears hitting maximum intensity before falling to a lower dynamic level only to rebuild relentlessly towards an identical peak. Albright also made good use of medium-slow halftime soul grooves – such as the Johnny Gill R&B hit ‘My, My, My’ which the audience sang along to – during which times the saxophonist played sultry to the extreme. The shuffle based ‘Cheaper to Keep Her’, from Albright’s Sax for Stax album, found him in a more bluesy mood which provided welcome stylistic contrast.

Overall, the smooth jazz-loving audience clearly enjoyed an Albright performance that was undeniably polishedand utilised an effective approach that has fuelled his 17 albums to date. Although, like any artist, Albright makes new ground with every release, he’s clearly a man who knows his craft delivering in a big way through the use of tempos, dynamics and saxophone devices that are proven crowd-pleasers. The experience of seeing him in action was thrown into sharper relief by having first observed the non-commercially driven creative imagination of Empirical. Nevertheless, through their honest questionnaire and in their own manner, the young group also sought to understand how music moved their audience. Live jazz in London was the clear winner, with a thought-provoking night in Soho.



– Jamie Fyffe

– Photo by Mike Flynn