One of the most exciting and challenging British jazz groups, Moiré Music are heard all too rarely. So the seven-concert Contemporary Music Network tour in January provided a rare opportunity to hear this music at first hand.
With four saxes, two violins and a four-man rhythm section, Moiré plays music that has more in common with the ‘minimalist’ compositions of Glass and Reich than with orthodox jazz composition. But Moiré’s approach has been to combine rigid structure with space for improvisation. The dense rhythmic undergrowth is dominated by the interplay of Nana Tsiboe’s percussion, Liam Genockey’s hyperactive drums and Ernest Mothle’s bass, over which layers of repetitive motifs are put down by the saxes and violins.
The fine solo work by Simon Picard, Lol Coxhill and leader Trevor Watts and the almost hypnotic interweaving of violinists Peter Knight and Steve Dunachie provided some memorable passages, particularly on an elegiac theme that echoed In A Silent Way. The one disappointment was the final piece, Mr Sunshine; last year’s Bracknell commission was here reworked to omit the vocals and thus lost its sparkle.
There is a danger with Moiré’s material that the form might dominate the content, and kill the spontaneity of the soloing, but Watts’ ingenuity and imagination should ensure that Moiré continue to evolve and progress, avoiding that pitfall.
