Sleep Eternal
Life Dance
Atonement
Transluscence
We Must All Change
Quirk of Fate
Gently Into The Night
The Dark Glass
If Only…
Nocturne
Remembering Kenny
Celestial Vision
There’s a strongly threnodic element to Geoff Eales’s latest album which bears a triple dedication to Valerie Eales (his mother), Kenny Wheeler and John
Taylor. It is in that respect, if not necessarily any other, that it shares something of the same quality as Avishai Cohen’s latest album, itself dedicated
to his late father. This memorializing quality is not, however, oppressive, rather it is absorbed into the current of a 12-track disc that acknowledges the
fate of all things, whilst celebrating the individuality of a good life lived.
His quintet is fronted by Noel Langley’s trumpet and flugelhorn and by the vocals of Brigitte Beraha. In the engine room he has Chris Laurence and drummer
Martin France. The vocals are the conduit by which reflections on life and death and allusive commentaries on them can best be conveyed, not least on the
opener, Sleep Eternal, with its languid improvisatory element to the fore amidst its reflections on death. A subtle dance with folkloric hues
strongly redolent of Eastern Europe pervades Life Dance and the light, airy vocals on Atonement belie the weightier expressive meaning.
Eales draws on Gospel for We Must All Change, an imperative instruction conveyed through a leaping vocal line whilst Quirk of Fate is a
largely straight-ahead Blues outing but with a few surprises along the way. Eales’ rich chording and comping is best illustrated on the lullabyGently Into The Night, which presumably plays on the lines of Dylan Thomas but in an affirmatory way. An element of quietly musing regret pervades If Only…The multi-sectional Remembering Kenny is the longest track, and its lively, vibrant qualities are enhanced by Eales’s warm piano
interlude and a turning-funky up-tempo gear change – here the trumpet and flugelhorn are overdubbed for a time as they exchange lines and France gets
thrashily busy at the drums. Tension and vitality are the names of the game here. Celestial Vision returns to Gospel roots, and then there are the
three piano solos, interspersed throughout, in which Eales distills romanticist elements – even going so far as to quote Chopin. These improvisations are
deliberately kept short, at around the two-minute mark.
This thoughtful but affirmatory album continues Geoff Eales’ increasingly active and fine studio work.
Jonathan Woolf
CD Reviews
