How do you rehearse when your band members live variously in Denmark, Italy and Germany as well as London? Trumpeter Fulvio Sigurtà briefly drew back the curtain as Red Kite prepared to premier a new tune while the audience at Bristol Beacon, loudly encouraged by promoter Ian Storrer, cheered for an encore: to paraphrase Sigurtà, ‘right here, live’ was the answer. There was no sign of rough edges to this listener’s ears as the band dug into another of pianist Esben Tjalve’s distilled-to-their-essence compositions, this one with a snappy, off-kilter, funky groove and plenty of space for shapely and expansive solos.
Red Kite were in Bristol as part of a short tour playing material from their album, Popludium, to be released this autumn. The music is all from the pen of Tjalve, and the quintet, whose paths all crossed at some point in London, is completed by Hannes Riepler on guitar, Jasper Høiby on bass and Marc Michel behind the kit.
Sigurtà’s light hearted comment was belied by the fluidity and ease with which they inhabited Tjalve’s finely crafted pieces. They opened with the title track of the album, a pulsing note passed between Tjalve and Høiby was the simplest of musical materials, gradually built on with floating chords from the piano, whimpers and textures from trumpet and guitar and flurries from the bass. Sigurtà exhaled cycling, sparse melodic motifs his gradually flexing phrases and warm breathy tone imbued them with emotion, before the first of Tjalve’s patiently developed, thrilling solos pushed the piece along.
Tjalve’s writing draws the maximum out each idea and element in a piece. The Detective had just a flavour of a film-noir soundtrack, with bluesy and spooky phrases tweaking the ear, Riepler digging in this time to deliver a raunchy solo. In Pantomime, arpeggios tiptoed around the band as Sigurtà conjured another evocative theme, prompting angular solos from bass and piano, Michel’s drums scattering tattoos amongst the arpeggio phrases to take them out.
A feature of the band was each member’s instinct about when to play freely in counterpoint, or hold back with minimal accompaniment; solos felt like a collective effort with one member leading the way. They really took flight on Shards, an epic built mostly around a descending four chord phrase that kept reappearing with a different grooves and atmospheres. A searing exchange of phrases between Sigurtà and Riepler evolved to a compelling climax, Sigurtà’s full range was on display from whisper to howls, with glittering runs and swoops, Riepler answering and spurring him on, the declamatory phrases of the theme arrived with powerful emotional punch at the climax, before they eased it a steady groove to play out.
Red Kite delivered two richly compelling sets that left me wanting to hear the music again, and more of what’s shaping up to be brilliant pan-European ensemble, happily with strong base in UK.
Photo credit: Mike Collins
Mike Collins is a pianist and writer based in Bristol, who runs the jazzyblogman site.
