UK Jazz News

Tim Garland, Joe Locke and Jason Rebello – Birmingham + London

18-19 January '24

L-R: Jason Rebello, Tim Garland, Joe Locke. Composite photo courtesy of nadworks

In January 2024, saxophonist Tim Garland will reunite with pianist Jason Rebello and vibraphone master Joe Locke to perform as a trio for the first time in 23 years.

Garland, Rebello and Locke will play two rare concerts together, one with an accompanying workshop at Birmingham Conservatoire on 18 January and one at St Martin-in-the-Fields in London on 19 January, the same venue where Garland and Rebello launched their duo album Life To Life earlier this year. The London event serves both as an opportunity to mark the first anniversary of that album launch (LINK), and also to celebrate the unique rapport between three musicians who all remain at the top of their game.

Garland, Rebello and Locke have worked closely in separate configurations during those 23 years and beyond. Garland’s working relationship with Rebello goes back over 30 years (with Rebello having played on Garland’s 1996 album Enter The Fire and on a Lammas album in 1993). More recently, Rebello played a crucial role in Garland’s quartet One and also as part of the ensemble that recorded Return To The Fire. The two frequently emphasise their ability to learn from each other, with Rebello citing Garland’s compositional and melodic strengths, and Garland highlighting Rebello’s “very particular groove feel – he could just play up and down a major scale and you’d think, ‘that’s a Jason major scale!’”. Garland and Locke collaborate frequently, most recently on Locke’s album Mayam but also as the trio Storms/Nocturnes with Geoffrey Keezer, a group that has released three albums of haunting and beautiful music.

Garland and Rebello’s magnificent duo album Life To Life will act as the focal point of this new set, with music ranging from the intensely grooving ‘Two To Go’ to the reflective and deeply moving ‘This Morning’. Garland describes Locke as being “so electrifying as a player, but with a real sensitive touch and a penchant for playing ballads.” He also suggests that Locke already has a deep understanding of the Garland-Rebello duo approach and sound. With this in mind, both Garland and Rebello thought Locke would be the ideal addition for the ambience and acoustic of St Martin-in-the-Fields.

While much of the material will be drawn from Life To Life, the trio will also perform some of Locke’s work, as well as a new composition entitled ‘A Prayer For Winter’, on which Garland is currently hard at work. His website hosts the first part of a blog about the composition process for this, with part 2 due to follow before Christmas. With this piece, Garland has a specific aspiration to focus on melody: “It sometimes takes quite a bit of courage to break music down to something as fundamental as a melody and to hone and craft something which is so linear. It’s great to flex your muscles as a composer by writing for a big band, but there’s something absolutely irreducible about getting a great melody.”

When thinking about working with Rebello and Locke, Garland references the pioneering duo of Chick Corea and Gary Burton. Given that vibraphone and piano can occupy a similar sonic space, it is remarkable how well this particular combination of instruments can work. “It’s all about the players,” Garland explains. “You’ve got two very percussive players with Chick and Gary – they were so together when they played. But the virtuosity and the things which might impress were all in the service of something greater. The music is flamboyant, playful, extremely virtuosic – but if you think of a piece like ‘Love Castle’ (a version of this features on The New Crystal Silence live recording, and Garland has himself orchestrated it for a larger ensemble), what speaks to me is this irrepressible joy which is transcendent.” Garland initially sounds conscious of that word’s potentially religious implications, but still suggests it is a good word to use. “It doesn’t matter how low you are that day – you put that track on and you’ll feel better afterwards. That’s what I want to do!”

While Garland is careful not to make too direct a comparison with Corea and Burton, he is keen to emphasise both the proficiency of Locke and Rebello as individuals, and the collective rapport between all three of them: “When you get the level of virtuosity and masterful control that Joe and Jason have got, then it’s easy for me to be the third voice over the top.” Garland also remembers the trio’s working relationship as being relaxed and enjoyable. “I just remember the constant laughter,” he explains.  “When you come from that state of playfulness, that’s exactly the kind of situation where you can go off-piste. You want to use the music as a springboard.” Garland also reflects on a story about Ralph Towner and John Taylor rehearsing together, with Towner rushing over to the piano to try and pin down one of Taylor’s distinctive chord choices. “I want to be like that when I’m at that age,” Garland says, before adding wryly, “well now I am at that age, almost!”

Garland feels that respect, inquisitiveness and curiosity between the musicians is what translates well to an audience, and is something he has with Locke and Rebello, finding delight in the music’s nuances and details. “It’s important for the audience to feel as if they’ve come to the right place,” he states emphatically. “They’ve already been through all kinds of things trying to get to there that, by the time they sit down, you already owe them a good concert! It is wonderful as an audience member to know that it’s worth investing in what you are hearing.”

As an audience member recently, Garland has noticed a greater openness and honesty when musicians talk about their music, something that has perhaps in part come out of the collective experience of lockdown. “I have noticed the amount of the music generated out of empathy and solidarity,” Garland observes. “Music is particularly good at being a soothing balm for people of all persuasions – it has that non-linguistic, powerful, vibrational message that can take oneself out of one’s own narrative into something greater which is shared.” Here, Garland seems to have neatly defined an experience of music that can be common to both the musicians on stage in the moment, and to the audience as they hear the results. The combination of musicians and setting at St Martin-in-the-Fields promises to yield such an experience. Garland describes the venue as being “like a band member” in this context: “It’s not often you get to play in a massive great church!”

Looking ahead for the rest of 2024, Garland is set to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Lighthouse (his trio with Gwilym Simcock and Asaf Sirkis), and has a big double release with the Britten Sinfonia due out in May. But for now, the focus is firmly on these two concerts, not least because they are such a wonderful and rare opportunity to see these three musicians
performing together.

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