It’s little wonder that Scottish drummer John Rae has become a force on the New Zealand jazz scene. Before he emigrated to Wellington in 2008, Rae marshalled four other bandleaders – saxophonist Phil Bancroft, trumpeter Colin Steele, pianist Brian Kellock and guitarist Kevin Mackenzie) into his era-defining John Rae Collective.
A bigger feat saw Rae add big band horns and a full pipe band to his award-winning sextet Celtic Feet, which married hard-swinging jazz with Scottish traditional-styled themes.
Rae’s partner in Thick Records, pianist Ben Wilcock also has a Scottish connection. When a New Zealand theatre company offered him a gig at the Edinburgh Fringe, Wilcock bought a one-way ticket and spent the next five years working in blues and R&B bands as well as playing jazz in the UK.
Although Splendid Isolation favours the pair’s more reflective sides, it also shows their liking for springing surprises. The title track begins life in persuasive swingtime before morphing into something reminiscent of 10CC’s “I’m Not in Love”. An attractive ballad somehow emerges from “Say it with a Smile”’s initial tone poem. And bassist Patrick Bleakley moves centre stage to add a plaintively hopeful vocal on Rae’s “Tri Tone”.
Rae, Wilcock and Bleakley are joined on selected tracks by saxophonists Dan Yeabsley and Jabin Ward and Scottish guitarist Kevin Murray, who joins in the locomotive rhythm of Brainiac, but mostly this is a vehicle for Wilcock’s often blues-inflected pianism and Rae’s super-sensitive drumming.
“The Expanse” is the sort of glacial-paced piano ballad at which Tord Gustavsen excels, with Rae adding judicious beaters. Archie’s Rumble rolls and tumbles with its playful melody and Wilcock’s pearly toned, enquiring improvising. “Position Normal” is unashamedly bluesy, with Wilcock patiently exploring his ideas, as he does with the theme on “Always Alone”. And “Apple Road”, which is dedicated to Rae’s bass-playing father, Ronnie, looks wistfully to Scotland for its inspiration.
All in all, an understated and elegantly adventurous collection that rewards repeated listening.