Guy Barker Soundtrack

UK trumpeter and band leader Guy Barker took early lessons from Clark "Mumbles" Terry (who himself had major stints with Count Basie, Duke Ellington and Quincy Jones) before cutting his teeth with, amongst others, the Tracey band, John Dankworth and Gil Evans, Ornette Coleman (on the amazing "Skies of America"), Carla Bley, Georgie Fame, Frank Sinatra, Mike Oldfield, and Cleo Laine. His highest profile gig was probably featuring in the film "The Talented Mr Ripley", a couple of years before recording "Soundtrack".

"Soundtrack" is a wonderful album brimming with ideas and intensely inventive compositions while capturing an essential quality of yesteryear that has been lacking from contemporary mainstream jazz outfits for far too long. Barker tells us that the 5-part suite that closes the album is inspired by his love for the classic films of the 40s and 50s. Actually from the first note, the whole album could be a tribute to film noir, with modern twists.

The camera pans down past the spiral chimney stacks and hunchbacked quayside warehouses, into the suffocating fog, a dark blanket that enshrouds the sins of the night. The lone horn heralds the passing of a shady figure creeping through the shadows, his greatcoat swaddling rounded shoulders ... a flash of light, the hi-hat crashes and the man flees ... the chase is on.

Barker's arrangements mix new and old. His collective brass (Guy Barker: Trumpet, Denys Baptiste: Tenor Saxophone, Rosario Giuliani: Alto Saxophone, Barnaby Dickinson: Trombone) has that timeless Ellington / Basie big band feel, and the upbeat small band sections are more joyous Mingus or Sun Ra, especially when Jim Watson's fantastic Hammond kicks in. Listen out for an organ break in the middle of the trombone solo on the first track, you know something's happening, building up, but it keeps you waiting and then wham bam! A slide up and the band kick in. It's got to be one of the best fun moments in modern jazz. Then the rhythm section (Orlando Le Fleming: Bass, Sebastiaan Dekrom: Drums) gets all funky and suddenly you're listening to the theme to a 60s cop series or a Blaxploitation classic.

Eden Ahbez's "Nature Boy" gets a superb "Ascenseur pour l' chafaud" introspective ballad-type treatment, with delicate arrangement by Colin Towns (noted composer for film, tv and theatre, and recent arranger of Mahavishnu Orchestra music for the HR-Big Band with Billy Cobham), who better to have working on an album called "Soundtrack"?

An interesting adaptation of a Mozart aria is transformed into a rolling and tumbling laid back "The Creator Has A Master Plan"-type Reggie Workman bassline, with shrill trumpet piercing the heavens anchored by plump tympani.

This is a brief interlude before the second part of the album, the terminal suite on a par with Mann's "Concerto Grosso in D Blues" or Ellington's "Afro-Eurasian Eclipse" for its grand ideas and powerful arching orchestration. Each principal instrument assumes a character from a hypothetical movie; guy, girl, bad guy, etc.. A gorgeous Eastern-oriented introduction prepares us for the exotic grand finale, curtains sweep back to reveal a neverending chorus of dancing girls, la Folies Berg re, but this is the Ziegfeld Follies, a Busby Berkeley spectacular and we're puttin' on the Ritz. The suite is mainly based on a swinging motif with Baptiste taking a Gonsalves-marathon tenor solo, a soliloquy in the tender feminine alto, funky badass trumpet and an exciting chase climax before a return to that wonderfully evocative head. A modern day classic and Barker's magnum opus, to date.

But, perhaps the album highlight is "Waiting for the Delay", lovely Jimmy Garrison-like solo bass introduction before the beat is picked up by crystal-clear haughty Freddy Hubbard-sounding soul trumpet and sparse cymbals (the effect is a bit like on "B rang re's Nightmare" from Round Midnight) before the ensemble works it up to a full 60s pop freakout, built around a funky 2-section blues head (think "Born Under A Bad Sign") - it's right on, it's "Gonks Go Beat", with chunky Graham Bond organ, and it's also loyal to jazz, ensuring plenty of solo space (what a cascading trumpet break!) and complex brass interplay.

There's a general concern that there aren't the quality of jazz musicians about now as there used to be, somewhat helped along by the "lost 80s" and the recent growth of "Smooth Jazz", whatever that is, and bebop regurgitation by Wynston Marsalis. There is the evident absence of a modern classic upon which to pin our hopes for an innovative future. Now you can no longer moan that they don't make them like that anymore. This Guy does, and "Soundtrack" goes a long way towards filling the gap.