After impressing audiences and critics alike with his 2014 debut album Immune To Clockwork double bassist Olie Brice returns with Day After Day. This new recording by his quintet marks a consolidation of the group’s identity and expansion of Brice’s ideas as an improviser and composer. For over a decade he has been an important presence on the British jazz scene, leading his own band as well as taking part in excellent collaborative projects with the likes of Tobias Delius and Mark Sanders, Achim Kaufmann, Ingrid Laubrock, and James Allsop and Alex Bonney [BABs]. Day After Day is the work of an artist at an exciting stage of development, and sees Brice both broaden and refine his approach to arrangements for a group with very able soloists, cornetist Alex Bonney, saxophonists George Crowley and Mike Fletcher, and drummer Jeff Williams. As can be heard from the lively opener Aunt Nancy’s Balloons Brice belongs to a rich lineage of bandleaders who make highly expressive and melodic music that has a degree of structural fluidity which allows players to push in unexpected directions. The soaring lyrical melody and relentless hypnotic drive of the rhythm section set the tone for the rest of the programme, which strikes an intuitive balance between punchy rhythms and rousing themes. Some tracks are built on a series of tightly interlocking riffs that fashion the kind of sophisticated yet rugged blues associated with such as Julius Hemphill and Oliver Lake. The precisely agitated grooving of Another Mad Yak is another fine example of group chemistry while Interruptions presents Brice as an agent provocateur of sound, the piece stuttering back and forth between the leader’s growling arco phrases which slide in and out of time. Skittering rimshots and gently sustained horn lines make the music feel simultaneously earthy and airy. That composition shows how well Brice, Williams, Crowley, Fletcher and Bonney sound when they are performing material with an appealingly loose quality, and they also excel on the unabashed romanticism of songs like If You Were The Only Girl In The World, and the title track of Day After Day, a quite heart rending dirge that might well be a 21st century ‘ballad of the fallen.’ Brice’s quintet is a notable model of the forward thinking that defines some of the very best small groups in contemporary jazz. The longstanding relationship the leader has with Bonney, Williams and Crowley is borne out by the sharp focus of the ensemble playing while the input of newer member Fletcher is nothing if not invigorating. Throughout his career to date Brice has worked with many respected horn players on the British and international scenes, from tenor titans such as Evan Parker and Tony Malaby to trumpeter Loz Speyer, and his current quintet is a reflection of his ability to astutely deploy reeds and brass as well as stealthy percussion in order to serve compositions and arrangements that have a real strength of character. Day After Day is a bold, assured step forward on a wholly compelling musical journey.
