The chances are we’ve all heard music composed and arranged by Paul Mottram. His career as a composer stretches back to the 80’s and has resulted in an encyclopaedic CV of TV and Film credits. Seven Ages of Man sees Mottram bring his skills and creative imagination to bear on a project conceived as a jazz-classical hybrid, blending the freedom and sound world of jazz with the expansiveness and structure of orchestral music.
Tim Garland is at the heart of this project, Mottram’s association with him and Jason Rebello on piano dates back to their time as students at Guildhall. The suite was composed with Garland in mind and developed with a formidable sextet at the core, Jonny Mansfield on vibes, Misha Mullov-Abbado on bass, Ralph Salmins on drums and Paul Clarvis on percussion joining Garland and Rebello.
Mottram has used Shakespeare’s ‘Seven Ages’ as a device to structure the suite and as inspiration for themes and moods, adding two sections at the beginning, Origin and Gestation to set the scene for the journey from Infant to Old Age. The result is 70 minutes of absorbing, varied and colourful music. The integration of written passages and improvisation is seamless with the orchestra providing by turns texture, rhythmic energy and accompaniment, dense layers of harmony, soaring melodies and sometimes all of these at once.
Garland brings a finely tuned sensibility to the project from his own large-scale writing and playing projects with orchestras. The first sound we hear in Origin is his unaccompanied soprano sax, soon joined by the rest of the rhythm section and then the orchestra. Infant is a gently moving lullaby with the soprano taking flight and weaving evocative melodic patterns. Schoolboy, which first develops with a carefully orchestrated dancing dynamic from the interaction of strings and sextet, then morphs into a pulsing groove and Garland’s spiralling solo injects a bristling energy, extended by flowing solo from the piano.
Through the various ages, the writing develops moods, elegant melodic themes and evocative textures. The blending of the sextet and the orchestra combined with sublime playing, gives the music a real emotional charge. The Seven Ages of Man is a beautifully realised conception. Ubuntu Records, who’ve released the CD, are fast building a solid track record for supporting and releasing adventurous and interesting music.
Mike Collins is a pianist and writer based in Bristol, who runs the jazzyblogman site
