Allison Miller with The One O’Clock Lab Band: Big & Lovely (Royal Potato Family RPF 2502)
I had the pleasure of seeing New-York-based drummer and composer Allison Miller seven years ago when she was playing Newport Jazz Festival in Parlour Game, the quartet co-led by her and violinist Jenny Scheinman with Carmen Staaf (p) and Tony Scherr (b). Many will already know Miller from her albums with Boom Tic Boom (Scheinman, Ben Goldberg (cl), Kirk Knuffke (c), Myra Melford, (p), Todd Sickafoose (b)) and with jazz supergroup Artemis (Ingrid Jensen (t), Nicole Glover (ts), Scheinman, Renee Rosnes (p), Noriko Ueda (b)).
Miller is something of a drum-playing prodigy. She began lessons at the age of 10 and by the time she was 14 was holding the drum chair in a professional big band. Ever since then she’s wanted to record a big-band album using her own compositions. She’s now achieved this ambition by teaming up with the University of North Texas’s esteemed One O’Clock Lab Band to release Big & Lovely. The album’s eight tracks are all penned by Miller and using a bevy of top arrangers they include sparkling new versions of some of her established material such as Fierce and Potomac.
Directed by Alan Baylock, the talented members of this excellent band deliver a top-level performance throughout. Highlights are many – they include Ian Weidmann soloing on clarinet in Fuster; Ken Ebo on trombone in Fierce and Gabriel Nieves on tenor sax in Blue Wild Indigo. For a taste try the title track here. Further album details and full track listing are available on Allison Miller’s Bandcamp site.
Terence Collie: Elements (tcollie.co.uk)
Jersey-born pianist and composer Terence Collie taught himself to play piano when he was a boy. He’s now based in London and regularly plays the city’s jazz clubs. Collie released two albums with his first quartet, Prison Break, in 2011. He recorded a solo piano album, Reminiscent, in 2023 and an album with the Terence Collie Quartet the same year, entitled 384,400. The latter title refers to the distance in kilometres between the Earth and the Moon.
As an in-demand sideman Collie has performed with Bobby Wellins, Kyle Eastwood, Zoë Gilby, Simon Spillett, Steve Waterman, Nigel Price and Jo Harrop amongst many others. When time allows he also plays in the Panoply Trio with bassist Marianne Windham and drummer Caroline Boaden.
Performing alongside Collie on piano on his new album, Elements, are longstanding allies, Nick Lenner-Webster on bass and Ted Carrasco drums. Additional texture is provided by a string trio of violin, viola and cello from the London String Group and Collie’s poetry is spoken by Jim Trimmer.
The album is an engrossing odyssey through the elements expressed in four tracks: Air, Earth, Fire and Water. Each piece has a string opening, followed by the piano trio and then a spoken poem with soft piano background. The fifth track, Elements, amalgamates the whole into a profound finale. The strings and piano trio are combined in bookending the final passage and the piano is starkly absented from the album’s concluding poetry.
The music overall blends classical influences with contemporary jazz. It reflects the power and wonder of the natural world and the spoken poetry articulates the need to conserve and protect this. Have a look at a studio performance of the piano trio in Air. Note: the band comes in at 2.15 mins after film of a figure dancing to the track’s string prelude.
I should mention that the CD sleeve doesn’t detail the timings of each track so for those who are interested these are: Track 1 – 10.04 mins, Track 2 – 10.24 mins, Track 3 – 7.02 mins, Track 4 – 11.45 mins, Track 5 – 8.16. mins.
Rachael Calladine Quartet: The Game (33Jazz 820)
Derby-born vocalist Rachael Calladine comes from a musical family – her mother led a local jazz band and played piano and bass, her sister alto sax. As a teenager, Calladine sang with the city’s Youth Jazz Orchestra for five years. Later on she became lead vocalist and toured Europe with jazz/hip-hop band Us3. She’s been a session singer for Kylie Minogue, toured with the Spice Girls and over the years has performed regularly at London’s 606 Club and Ronnie Scott’s.
More recently she’s spent a decade singing in the nightspots of Dubai and the Middle East during which time she performed private engagements for the royal families of UAE and Brunei. On returning to the UK Calladine drove ambulances during the pandemic. Now she’s relaunched her musical career with this new release, The Game.
The album comprises four originals, three of them co-written by Calladine, and six covers including What A Difference A Day Makes, Dream A Little Dream Of Me and Horace Silver’s Peace. Calladine’s versatile and highly expressive delivery is deftly supported by the seasoned trio of Pat McCarthy (g), Andy Tytherleigh (b) and Simon Potts (d). McCarthy’s masterly guitar playing is a central feature of the album and the samba-style title track, composed by him and Calladine, is one of many catchy highlights.
Steve Sieck: Crazy That Way (Accordant Music)
I hadn’t come across singer Steve Sieck before so was pleasantly surprised by his songwriting skills. He’s composed all the words and music on this album and refreshingly, unlike those of many would-be tunesmiths, his songs are actually melodic.
After several years of cabaret and jazz club performance in New York City, Sieck recently moved to Los Angeles. Crazy That Way follows the release of his debut album, 21st Century Blues, 11 years ago. His new album examines love from multiple angles and spans jazz, pop, R&B, bossa nova, gospel and big-band swing. Sieck says he aims for meaningful, story-driven lyrics with a soulful delivery – in this he clearly succeeds.
The album maintains vocal variety by featuring a different guest as lead singer on four of the 12 tracks. These are: Mark Winkler, Tawanda Suessbrich-Joaquim (who pairs with Sieck in four other songs as well), Nicolas Bearde and Sidney Jacobs. Backing vocals are supplied by the Perri Sisters in two of the numbers and all arrangements are delivered by a medley of top-class LA musicians including Dori Amarilio (g), Mitchell Forman (kyb) and Rene Camacho (b). You’re invited to check out each song on Steve Sieck’s website here.
