Julian Costello Quartet – ‘And All the Birds Were Set Free’

Julian Costello Quartet – And All the Birds Were Set Free
(33 Jazz Records 33Jazz333. Album review by Nathan Wyde)

Saxophonist Julian Costello is currently enjoying a productive period. This album, the third from his quartet, predates by just a few weeks the one that Costello and his band Vertigo will launch on 23 July at Pizza Express [previewed on UKJN/ link below] and it would be a great pity if it were to be overlooked.

Costello is a superbly gifted composer with a songwriter’s ear for melody. Two of the pieces here, Why and Sunflowers, actually are songs, with lyrics by Anna Stearman and Rebecca Morse respectively and both sung attractively by Georgia Mancio.

Another piece, Song for Anna, needs no words as Costello’s tenor playing frankly and tenderly communicates his feelings for its subject, his wife. There’s a lovely harmonica solo from bassist Andy Hamill and pianist John Turville follows in a similarly expressive style before Costello’s very personal conclusion.

Costello and Turville are both very strong, imaginative improvisers with a real sense of form. Their solos – Turville’s on The Gecko and No Dragons Here particularly – are genuinely instant compositions, and if, as Costello observes, the latter track’s time signature is uncertain, then his fruity phrasing, Turville’s rhapsodic extemporising and Hamill’s improvised logicality give it a sure direction.

There’s no shortage of variety either. London Is Blue and Winter, both introduced and steered assuredly by drummer Tom Hooper, are suitably, and appealingly, moody. The Octopus marries complexity with the unashamed lyricism of Costello’s soprano and the cheekily named There’s Always One Track You Fast Forward has a robustness reminiscent of Stravinsky’s Firebird. All in all, a hugely enjoyable listen and warmly recommended.

LINK: Rob Adams’s feature about the new album Vertigo
Buy And All the Birds… from Presto Music