Clark Tracey Quintet – Introducing Emily Masser
(Strayhorn Information SHR002 – CD overview by Mark McKergow)

This dynamic album introduces vocalist Emily Masser as a brand new star of British jazz. Her performances are spot-on, the band is tight, the temper is swinging and all is about for a vivid future for us all.

Clark Tracey has turn into a form of British Artwork Blakey. A consummate drummer with some fifty years behind the package, a fearsomely driving fashion and a popularity for onerous work, Tracey has through the years led bands that includes among the greatest younger expertise rising on the UK scene. The schooling they obtain stays with them as they transfer on and Tracey appears round once more for the subsequent technology. Artwork Blakey did one thing related over the many years with the Jazz Messengers and nurtured some all-time nice gamers and composers, so it’s welcome to see each the younger band and the vary of fabric on present right here.

The opening A Bitta Bittadose is, fittingly, by former Jazz Messengers MD Bobby Watson. James Owston leads in on double bass with a bluesy introduction (an amazing begin to the album) earlier than the band enters with the tune, swinging mightily with Emily Masser scatting the melody. Alex Clarke follows on alto saxophone in traditional fashion earlier than a harmonised sax/vocal part units up Masser’s personal solo. Masser research saxophone (alongside singing) on the Guildhall, and the horn-player sensibility exhibits immediately within the pacing and development of the choruses, pinpoint intonation with some fleet-footed phrasing. Graham Harvey places within the first of his witty and well-executed piano solos. This monitor is offered now to preview on Clark Tracey’s Bandcamp web page – hyperlink under.

A Sleepin’ Bee begins with a beautiful gradual introduction earlier than kicking in at sprightly velocity for the refrain; Masser’s vocal is once more proper on the cash, hitting the important thing excessive notes with precision and evenly bouncing by way of Truman Capote’s lyrics. The Man I Love is a standout monitor, a surprisingly muscular model with loads of sax and cymbal-bell work within the introduction, earlier than Masser enters dramatically because the band breaks off. Masser produces a wise piece of vocalese updating the sentiment to the twenty first century, referring to Tinder and crispy duck takeaway amongst a lot else – Annie Ross should be trying on delighted. Clarke picks up on tenor sax with a nod to Coleman Hawkins; Tracey additionally will get an excellent solo right here, with Owston selecting up the bass alongside him.

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Tom Jobim’s Passarim offers a shift of temper, with Clark Tracey himself offering multi-tracked concord vocals; a neat flute solo from Clarke follows. Arthur Schwartz and Yip Harburg’s 1934 ballad Then I’ll Be Drained Of You is an under-heard traditional, tackled by artists as numerous as Fat Waller, Ella Fitzgerald and John Coltrane; Masser delivers it fantastically earlier than Clarke spreads out on tenor sax – the twist is that he’s now taking part in A Time For Love from the 1966 film An American Dream. It’s a beautiful mixture. Tracey favorite Immediately Final Tuesday, Jimmy Deuchar’s lightning-fast check piece for Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Couriers, closes the present with Masser selecting up the trumpet strains with precision and delight.

I’m certain this isn’t the final we’ll be listening to from Emily Masser and I’m keen to find what would possibly occur subsequent. She might be getting large mentoring from Clark Tracey and at simply 20 years of age is a burning expertise for the long run.

Hyperlink: Introducing Emily Masser on Clark Tracey’s Bandcamp