Scottish keyboardist Peter Johnstone was encouraged to form the quartet that appears on this album by New York-based vibes virtuoso Joe Locke after they worked together on a Scottish National Jazz Orchestra tour.
As the SNJO’s resident pianist Johnstone has become used to receiving praise from the illustrious guests who have been attracted into the orchestra’s orbit during saxophonist Tommy Smith’s tenure as artistic director. Vocalist Kurt Elling extended an invitation to Johnstone to play some dates last year after a SNJO tour and Locke’s suggestion that Johnstone form his own band and invite Locke to be part of it resulted in an October 2023 tour and this album.
Adding Smith and another SNJO colleague, drummer Alyn Cosker, to Locke, Johnstone began writing specifically for this personnel, switching to his second love, the Hammond organ. He wanted to give them music that would both challenge them and allow them to display their skills, of course, but he also wanted to create attractive music for their audience. He succeeded brilliantly.
Johnstone’s compositions have strong melodies allied to sophisticated chord progressions and arrangements and their inherent classiness has caused listeners to wonder if the ballads they’re hearing might be neglected standards.
“When You Were Born”, written for Johnstone’s young son, is a particularly strong example of this, as is “Beyond Everything”, both tunes inspiring Locke and Smith to improvise with shape, passion and above all, imagination over Johnstone’s Hammond playing.
The album opens with the title track, a driving, punchy piece that Cosker propels insistently, his well-tuned kit adding colour to the precise rhythmical impact. Smith improvises magisterially and Locke follows with enterprising commitment, mallets flying as his incidental singing underlines his determination to inhabit and illustrate fully the composition’s contours.
“New Beginnings” has an elegant melody that Smith plays with superb authority and the attractively moody “Fleeting Dreams”, with its undulating Hammond figure, has a beautifully plotted vibes solo.
As an album it’s all of a piece, both the writing and the playing maintaining such wonderfully impressive consistency that after the closing “The Four Horsemen”, with its drum solo intro, insistent Hammond urgency and tight saxophone and vibes partnership, it’s tempting to go back to the beginning and listen again.
For the quartet’s imminent concerts in Dorking, London, Ambleside and Edinburgh, Smith’s place is being taken by altoist Will Vinson due to unforeseen circumstances. However, Johnstone’s writing is so strong and his skills as an organist and bandleader so assured that the music is worth hearing on its own merits.
Tour dates
Tues 8 July – Watermill Jazz, Dorking
Weds 9 July – 606 Club, London
Thus 10 July – Zeffirellis, Ambleside
Fri 11 July – St Bride’s Centre, Edinburgh
