The music on this latest
Turnage offering effectively carries
on from where Blood on the
Floor left off. That work was also
for jazz trio and orchestra (inspired
largely by the same players) and with
Scorched one gets the feeling
that the jazz/classical fusion style
that Turnage has been seeking so long,
is finally found. The title puns on
the words SCofield ORCHEstrateD (geddit?)
and is basically a suite of fourteen
numbers that alternate between the freewheeling
improvisations of the trio, and ‘straight’
(though heavily jazz orientated) items
from the orchestra and associated big
band. The numbers are sometimes thematically
linked, but I don’t really get the sense
of a jazz-based triple concerto (as
the composer reportedly thinks of this
as), rather more of seemingly disparate
groups of musicians sparking off each
other in an enjoyable sequence.
The opening highlights
the approach effectively. The orchestra
begins with a short prelude entitled
‘Make Me 1’, where spiky dissonances
and wide, angular leaps remind one of
Stravinsky, or even Turnage’s own Three
Screaming Popes. This is followed
immediately by ‘Make Me 2’, where the
trio takes up the music and play around
with elements of it. Turnage’s heroes
(both classical and jazz) are well known,
and one senses the influence of Miles
Davis and Gil Evans in what he is trying
to achieve. I was also aware of the
shadow of the great electric bassist
Jaco Pastorius, a key member of Erskine’s
Weather Report in the ’70s. Patitucci’s
inventive bass lines seem modelled on
the Pastorius style, and indeed Jaco
himself always strove for a style that
seamlessly mixed jazz and modern classical
in the way Turnage does here. One particular
number, ‘Trim’ had shades of the manic
Pastorius composition ‘Reza’, which
features on both The Birthday Concert
and Live in Japan.
There are plenty of
ear-tickling items, even if the success
rate is uneven. ‘Fat Lip 1’, an orchestral
scherzo devoted entirely to pizzicato
strings, sounds a little like the third
movement of Tchaikovsky 4 on speed.
The blowsy harmonies and sleazy tune
at the centre of the appropriately titled
‘Deadzy’ could be straight out of a
’60s detective B movie (maybe that’s
the intention – a sort of cornball homage).
When orchestra, big band and trio are
truly fired up, the sparks do fly and
we get a real sense of music making
that abandons stylistic barriers and
just gets on with being music, plain
and simple.
The recording quality
is excellent, and the event seems truly
live, complete with the mandatory applause
after individual solos. Good notes are
by Nick Kimberly. Plenty for all Turnage
fans to enjoy here, as well as those
fancying something a bit different.
Tony Haywood
John Scofield (guitar) 