Loz Speyer's "Time Zone"

Loz Speyer - trumpet/flugelhorn; Martin Hathaway - alto sax/bass clarinet; Stefano Kalonaris- guitar;
Davide Mantovani - double bass; Simon Pearson - drums; Maurizio Ravalico - congas

London trumpeter Loz Speyer specialises in a mix of American hard-bop and classic Afro-Cuban music. Loz lived for a while in Santiago de Cuba, and the debt is undisguised. But, as a British musician of Django Bates's generation, Speyer has done things his way, and the result is a contemporary Latin-jazz of considerable muscle. The trumpeter's drily deliberate, frequently tight-muted sound is engagingly set against the lithe alto-sax playing of Martin Hathaway, also eloquent on bass clarinet. The music has a warmly harmonised but melodically succinct style. Speyer's mood swings lazily grooved to the sultry sound of Hathaway's bass clarinet, and a fast-moving, Ornette Coleman-like freebop melody of wide intervals and sliding cadences brought another tautly conceived solo from excellent guirarist Jez Franks. (John Fordham, Guardian)
 

“The slow moving nature of the Cuban clock is one of several salient sources of inspiration for the articulate, probing sound of Speyer’s quintet. Another is the biting swing of Thelonious Monk. Monk altered our perception of time through his command of rhythm, his clever emphasis on the placement and displacement of the beat. It seems entirely logical for his spirit to coalesce with that of Santiago de Cuba in all its lithe yet muscular slowness. Clave rhythms crop up here and there but they're not weighed down by standard Latin-jazz licks. Slow can be fast and fast can be slow. And there is an intriguingly saturnine quality in both the leader’s compositions and the band’s execution, a sense of hard-edged modernity that has a side-winding thrust reminiscent of Dave Holland's ensemble at times. Speyer’s playing also catches the ear due to its buoyant drive, astute use of space and incisive way with a phrase that intermittently evokes Hispanic players and avant-garde heroes such as Lester Bowie. An impressive, mature debut by an ensemble led by a trumpeter/composer who has absorbed the essence of Cuban music and distilled it quite cunningly into an improvisatory context with no compromise to either culture. The result is gritty, graceful sounds with a dark-light intensity.”
Kevin Le Gendre, Echoes - 2005 CD review

Hear time zone on http://www.myspace.com/lozspeyer

Loz Speyer's "Time Zone" at Seven on Sunday 6th December 2009 1-4pm

£5/4 concessions kids under 16 free