Recording of the Week, corto.alto - Bad With Names

Whilst Edinburgh may be its capital, the real bustling metropolis of central Scotland is, undisputedly, Glasgow. These days, the nation’s former industrial heart houses a variety of rich cultural institutions; its unique vibrancy, a product of the rapid revitalization that has placed a precipitous sheen over its once-rugged exterior. 

With this burgeoning aesthetic rejuvenation has fortunately come a thriving jazz scene of its own, spearheaded in no small part by DJ and producer, Rebecca Vasmant. This Glaswegian broadcaster, who has hosted her own regular slot on Worldwide FM, is something of a benevolent gatekeeper in the truest sense of the word as far as her hometown’s scene is concerned. One such artist whose emerging career she has had the pleasure of watching from the wings has been Liam Shortall, a trombone-playing graduate of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and leader of the nu-jazz collective corto.alto whose debut album, Bad With Names, dropped earlier this month.

Shortall is a fine example of the kind of musician the Glasgow scene is capable of providing – that is to say, a prodigious young talent already immersed in the wide feeling of community the city has on offer; an individual artist who succeeds not only in cultivating online clicks but human connections as well. His skills don’t stop there however, as a quick glance at his credentials will tell you: as a multi-instrumentalist, he enrolled on his jazz degree course as its youngest ever candidate at the age of 16, and has been in high demand since. Having been able to pursue music from such an early age whilst honing his craft on the bandstand, Shortall has reached the point almost instantaneously where he can dedicate more time to executing his own projects without fear of trying something new – commencing from his housebound triweekly musical endeavour, ‘Flat 435’. 

Whilst the core momentum of corto.alto lies with Shortall’s imaginative charisma, it takes a hearty crew to bring his rambunctious vision to life. In many ways, Bad With Names is the audible equivalent of holding a stethoscope to Shortall’s head before taking a peek at what’s thumping away inside (if you can forgive such a metaphor). By his own admission as an arranger, his ideas can be a little loose around the edge. Luckily for Liam, it works in his favour given that his reputable bandmates are more than up to the task of contributing their own personal flair and agency. Having expressed his desire to break away from the tried and tested in hope of encapsulating an altogether different and novel experience, the bandleader has since turned inwards. Melding the multitude of influences he wears on his sleeve, he unleashes before us a musical resume of gallivanting proportions. 

In many ways, the project’s title (a literal Spanish translation of Shortall’s own surname, ie. ‘short’ and ‘tall’) is a fitting moniker for what the group achieves on Bad With Names. This conceptual criss-crossing between two opposing ideas encapsulates the wide-ranging voyage undertaken by the musicians, overlapping musical boundaries in forward-thinking fashion as they go. If this is the new Scottish sound, then it is automatically clear how corto.alto has progressed from following local trends to now setting them.