Just before Christmas, John Fordham of The Guardian judged Face to Face to be one of the 10 best jazz albums of 2023, and he’ll get no argument from me on that. Unlike those big band records which involve several different writers and arrangers, this beautifully crafted project is the work of a single composer and although the tempos and moods are varied and rich, it has the feel of a Suite.
Face to Face was made during Nikki’s time working in Germany as Composer in Residence with the awesome NDR Bigband and it’s no coincidence that those countries where the arts are highly valued and receive generous financial support, produce so much culturally important work. As she explains (*):
“The German radio big bands commission new music and arrangements all the time, even the more experimental end of the music, which the NDR is well-known for. There’s a sense too of openness and collaboration within the band, enabling your musical ideas to fly. I’m in my third year of working with them and we get a great reaction to our concerts, with the audiences having a mixed-age demographic. Our recent performance at the wonderful concert hall, the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg (**), was part of a subscription series which sold out with 2.500 people attending. I can’t imagine a classical audience in London being happy to also pay to attend a modern jazz concert with the same kind of enthusiasm.”
Such positive audience responses and the reassurance of having steady, properly paid work, can surely only enhance the self-confidence and enjoyment of the NDR’s players in making music. On this album, the band was recorded ‘live’ in the studio, with no overdubs or effects, giving us natural timbres as if we were in the room with the musicians. The personnel includes guests Mike Walker (guitar) and Ian Thomas (drums) and there’s plenty of space on all the tracks for the band’s top-class soloists to stretch out. If over-written, big band music can constrain and inhibit the individual, but not here. The arrangements are loosely structured so as to allow time to develop solos, the band only kicking back in when the featured player’s work is done – the power of the ensemble being deployed sparingly for maximum effect.
The eight tracks utilise the full palette of sounds which a big band can offer and whilst each has its own distinct character (the gorgeous layered harmonies and mid-century cool of “Hush”, the high-octane drive of “Misfits”, the angular edgy funk of “Red Ellen” and coiled spring tension within“The Caged Bird”), all sit comfortably alongside one another. The subtle threads which connect these pieces are minimalist and reflective – the haunting post-modern alienation of an Edward Hopper painting lit by the optimism of new beginnings. This album is the diary of an internal as well as an experiential journey and we can hear this retrospection most poignantly on the title track which, as Nikki herself says, has a melancholic, bitter-sweet colouring which owes much to the inspirational writing and playing of the late, peerless, Kenny Wheeler.
Face to Face is evidence that the Big Band can still give us great art. Although the UK’s youth jazz bands and orchestras continue to do a terrific job in nurturing and supporting talent, we can’t pretend that the cultural worth of jazz at the professional level gets the acknowledgement it deserves. At times in the past, there has been decent funding but until we re-invest in what should be a treasured asset, our best people will continue to seek more secure opportunities elsewhere.
(*) Quote from David Shiers’s interview with Nikki Iles, December 2023.
One Response
Excellently written review, as ever…