Noah Stoneman: Anyone's Quiet: Let it Rain to You

Rating: ★★★

Record and Artist Details

Musicians:

Luca Caruso (d)
Will Sach (b)
Noah Stoneman (p)

Label:

Fresh Sound New Talent

September/2023

Media Format:

CD, DL

Catalogue Number:

FSNT-657

RecordDate:

Rec. 7-8 October 2021

To that current extraordinary new wave of young UK jazz pianists (Deschanel Gordon, Sultan Stevenson, Eddie Gripper et al) we must now add North London's Noah Stoneman.

Born in 2001, Stoneman is still studying contemporary classical composition [sic] at the Royal Academy of Music. In 2016, aged 15, he was a finalist in the BBC Young Jazz Musician of the Year competition. Needless to say, he was still in his teens when he made his Ronnie Scott's debut.

Since then, he has worked mainly as a sideman with the likes of Ruben Fox and Alex Hitchcock. Given his rate of progress, this debut album, produced by long-time mentor Kit Downes, almost looks overdue. Stoneman's trio features the ubiquitous Will Sach on bass, along with Luca Caruso on drums.

The pianist expresses the hope that people will find “some sense of quiet reflection or poetry” in listening to the album. The influence of Downes and other modernists is evident in the constant variations in rhythm and melody, which create an impressionistic effect.

Butterfly-like, most of the tunes don’t settle in one place for very long. Stoneman clearly likes to set a challenge – for himself, his musicians and his audience. The album's enigmatic, rather baffling title suggests a delight in obscure wordplay, and perhaps an equal fondness for musical trickery.

The abstraction of pieces like ‘Evanescence’ and ‘Mourndoom’ contrasts with more melodic, conventionally structured numbers like the sweet, airy opener ‘Tomas and Tereza’, with its elusive time signatures, and – in particular – the lovely, serene, slow swinger ‘Major’.

Follow us

Jazzwise Print

  • Latest print issues

From £5.83 / month

Subscribe

Jazzwise Digital Club

  • Latest digital issues
  • Digital archive since 1997
  • Download tracks from bonus compilation albums during the year
  • Reviews Database access

From £7.42 / month

Subscribe

Subscribe from only £5.83

Never miss an issue of the UK's biggest selling jazz magazine.

Subscribe

View the Current
Issue

Take a peek inside the latest issue of Jazzwise magazine.

Find out more