The jacket which sax player Nathaniel Facey wore at last week’s album launch for Empirical’s new album Wonder is the Beginning at a packed World Heart Beat Embassy Gardens was a metaphor for the music that followed: colourful, vivid, creative, and dry clean only (well, maybe not the last one).
Always a dapper band, with their suits thumbing a nose at many of today’s casually dressed artistes, Facey’s white jacket with floral motifs was Joseph-dreamcoat-esque and sent out a bold message: seventeen years in, core members Facey, Shaney Forbes on drums and Tom Farmer on bass, with Jonny Mansfield on vibraphones (depping for Lewis Wright), are still masters at painting bright, multi-tonal pictures on their jazz canvas.
Supporting – wait, supporting’s a bit passive and undescriptive. Nourishing and gilding the Empirical sound was Jason Rebello on piano. One of my favourite British players, I was at the gig primarily to hear his playing and he didn’t disappoint. I hadn’t actually seen Empirical live for maybe a decade; but this gig was a salutary reminder that when they get going in the live situation, they really are something.
Each and every one of their tunes was rapturously received by a full-capacity 110 people packed into the charmingly tight World Heart Beat venue cum studio space. I was sat behind the rhythm section of Forbes and Farmer, both as sharp as a pair of tailor’s scissors on the faster tracks and as tender soft as a cashmere jumper on the ballads. It was a joy to see Farmer, eyes closed in concentration, wielding his double bass with such intensity, plucking magic from all four strings, and giving frequent knowing looks across to Forbes that said: “yeah, we got this.”
Ait they had. Over two sets, the audience was treated to great solos, boisterous group playing, and plenty of space for the quieter tunes to drift around the space. Mansfield’s vibes playing was immaculate. It served well here in providing the pastel shades to contrast Facey’s more powerful palette and Rebello’s colourful effervescence.
Empiricism is the philosophy of making decisions based on verifiable observation or experience, rather than theory. On the evidence of this new album, I can say without doubt that Empirical is in a very good place.
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