In 2020, some of London's finest musicians and bandleaders were engaged by
Bruce Lampcov to play a series of improvised European concerts celebrating the 50th anniversary of
Miles Davis' seminal
Bitches Brew -- very arguably the first fusion album. Unfortunately, the pandemic decided these were not to happen. In December, five days after the U.K.'s second quarantine ended, this collective assembled for three days in a studio.
London Brew is the result. The players are nearly a survey of the current South London scene: saxophonists
Nubya Garcia and
Shabaka Hutchings; tuba player
Theon Cross; turntablist
Benji B; drummers/percussionists
Tom Skinner and
Dan See; bassist
Tom Herbert; guitarist
Dave Okumu; violinist
Raven Bush; and keyboardists
Nikolaj Torp Larsen and
Nick Ramm.
Lampcov is the executive producer, and
Martin Terefe produced the album. In keeping with the studio vibe
Davis created for the
Bitches Brew sessions, this group's members offered one another only loose ideas, like a tempo, groove, or vamp, etc. That said, before that exchange occurred, they directly absorbed loops and samples from
Bitches Brew gathered by
Benji B; all are properly credited to
Davis' estate. The musicians stumbled over them and one another on the first day. On the second, they were more comfortable with each other and the emergent collective creative process. On the final day, they gelled and cut the disc.
These selections range from the truly out and exotic to moody, dark-tinged funk and modal grooves. The title-track opener, offered in two parts, commences with spacious string drones, electronic sounds, and wandering sax and oboe lines above a a skeletal rhythmic pulse. Its second part revels in dub production effects, with gated, overdubbed drum kits and low-tuned bass in shifting time signatures. The wonky, distorted guitars enter next, adding a paranoid telegraph key cadence to the emergent dark funk. The single "Miles Chases New Voodoo in the Church" seemingly appears from bass clarinet and sax lines punctuated by droning minor-key organ, constantly rolling, muted drums, powerful electronics, and spiky guitars. "It's One of These" is closest in spirit to the music actually found on
Bitches Brew. Though initiated by a lockstep funk groove by drums, guitar, and electronics,
Hutchings' meandering bass clarinet solo adds not only harmonic but textural dimension as Rhodes piano and solo bass lines weave a new vamp for the band to follow.
Herbert's bass and
Cross' tuba entwine with an etheric oboe on "Bassics." Its production, backmasking, ambient sounds, and random effects closely recall
Jon Hassell's
ECM era. Closer and second single "Raven Flies Low" is initiated with a seemingly fixed, if elastic, groove and dominated by violin. Bass and drums create a staggered, striated funk groove as a Rhodes piano offers floating harmony in
Bush's vamping and solo. The ensemble on this highlight cut sounds almost completely independent of
Davis' influence.
London Brew is wonderfully eclectic, strange, and beautifully realized. In keeping with its inspiration source, it's a vanguard electric jazz album, abundant in communication, immediacy, and imagination. ~ Thom Jurek
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