Clonmell Jazz Social
Guitarist and composer Harry Christelis has had a few albums out on the carefully curated Clonmell Jazz Social and for his latest he has drawn around him some friends and fellow travellers: Christos Stylianides on trumpet, Andrea di Biase on bass and Dave Storey on drums, to create the same quartet that played on 2023’s Nurture The Child / Challenge The Adult.
This group of players somehow manages to create a sense of gauzey calm as the structure of the pieces is gradually unfurled. With Harry and Christos also credited with effects and Andrea also playing synths, there are little textural embellishments that highlight the slow build. A
casual elegance to the momentum, with light cymbal work scattered as guitar and trumpet reflect one another. Reverb hangs in the air and the measured eloquence of the drums gives a lovely unruffled feel, somehow making the world feel just that bit more bearable.
The textured percussion is probably the most excitable element here, chuckling like a spring stream while an
unhurried warmth emanates from the other three players. Songs unfold at a natural pace and there is a sense of bliss, as if this quartet is the optimum situation for those involved. Landscapes appear familiar and much loved and the minute details are picked out and revelled in as we progress slowly across them. The trumpet’s fragility is borne by the gentle ushering of the bass and a sense of constant searching for new stimulus is apparent, with a backdrop of electronics acting as landmarks.
There are a couple of shorter tracks that highlight the guitar and an engine drone on one and the breath of the trumpet on the other, microscopic details that halt progress for a short time, allowing us to take a step back. There are hints of jazz inflection here and there, but the album offers far more: a very personal view that recognises some jazz tropes but disguises them with their own subtle sway. In places the bass and drums shapeshift, rolling like marbles with a willingness to forgo structure for texture when it seems right and allow light to pierce through.
The variety is impressive and when Harry takes a solo guitar step forward, there is a definite folk inflection to the playing which opens up further possibilities, the clear tone evoking another landscape, but this time static. Later on, the same slow guitar is enthused by the rhythm section and expanded by the
ecstatic trumpet.
Here the music is progressive in its expansive nature, with everyone stretching and pushing, blowing out cobwebs as the trumpet stitches together
streaks of scree. Towards the wend of the album, abstract bass scrapes and electronics uncover an ebb and flow; light reflecting down as instruments are suspended, drifting further from the beach but with a sense of exultance that defines the album as a whole.
Another fine release from Clonmell Jazz Social and one that finds Harry and the quartet in a state of further expansion, and long may that continue.
-Mr Olivetti-
Guitarist and composer Harry Christelis has had a few albums out on the carefully curated Clonmell Jazz Social and for his latest he has drawn around him some friends and fellow travellers: Christos Stylianides on trumpet, Andrea di Biase on bass and Dave Storey on drums, to create the same quartet that played on 2023’s Nurture The Child / Challenge The Adult.
