Its cover-art livery of rockets or missiles against an electric-blue sky might mean that the listener will encounter something foreboding in the Emily Francis Trio’s latest album, whose title further suggests a detonating quality.
What it will definitely suggest to many who were around in the 1970s is a faint echo of prog-rock, not prog-jazz, whatever that is (fusion, maybe?). The point about prog-rock was that it had died a death by the end of the decade, lying on the ground like a lifeless mastodon and taking up a lot of space. And the point about that Miocene behemoth is that it’s extinct.
There’s probably mileage in trying to create a new sonic livery for the traditional jazz piano trio. Esbjörn Svensson and E.S.T. tried it with diminishing returns. Francis brings to it synthesisers and a Wurlitzer, hedging her bets that any returns will be at least loud and capacious.
But it’s odd – Lydian Child is a meandering, plaintive enough melody overpowered by rock drumming and bass lines and clothed in impasto textures; it’s repeated in acoustic version, played last with Francis at the piano, but it’s not half as good as the other, overblown, version. The problem encapsulated there is that, stripped of its barrage-balloon electronica, the tune – and the performance – is a wraith.
The title track’s heavy tread and its strophic-like melody reveals a bleak landscape; After The Rain boasts urgently chasing bass and drums (though with pacific final cadences) and expanding sonic space; Don’t Forget To Feed The Orchid has a lighter, over-insistent rock pulse wreathed by the keyboard but with indications at the end that Trevor Boxall’s bass and Jamie Murray’s drums can do more than keep sledgehammer time.
At a smidgen over 20 minutes, the album is probably keen not to outstay its welcome.
Discography
After The Rain; Lydian Child; Atomic; Don’t Forget To Feed The Orchid; Lydian Child (21.17)
Francis (p, org, syn); Trevor Boxall (b); Jamie Murray (d). London (no dates given).
Emily Francis Trio EFTCD -03
