When Bill Wells got together with some fellow musicians to form the National Jazz Trio of Scotland a good ten years ago, it was a great idea. Originally a quintet, the sixth album features a duo, with Wells still on the instruments and Aby Vulliamy on vocals alone. With an air of confidence and the band’s usual irresistible understatement, they take on standards, some of which are so well known that you might be sceptical when you read about them. Does it go well? »We Can Work It Out« by the Beatles, »To Love Somebody« by the Bee Gees or Burt Bacharach’s »The Look of Love« answer with a resounding »yes« three times. Which is no doubt indebted to the discreet humour that the »trio« displays in their raucously spartan interpretations. On the Beatles song, Vulliamy sings »We can’t work it out« all the time, »To Love Somebody« becomes »To Luv Somebody« thanks to her Scottish accent, and they reduce »Look of Love« to just a few loops that still preserve the character of the song. Traditionally quiet, delicate and fragile in a matter-of-fact way, but also somehow unshakable, because they never allow themselves to lose their composure, despite all the emotional twists that lurk in the material, waiting for something to pick up speed. Cool and great.
Golden Diskó Ship
Oval Sunpatch
Karaoke Kalk