The gaunt and unobtrusively studious New York trumpeter Ralph Alessi can resemble a man on a philosophical rather than a musical mission, and on a casual listen there can seem to be an impassive rigour to his investigations of contemporary postbop, which fans of jazz’s unpredictable collisions and fiery outbursts might consider over-cooled. Lean closer, and Alessi’s empathic and technically razor-sharp quartet reveal that they know all about those qualities, but unveil them in a reflective rather than button-punching manner. Alessi’s recent recordings for the ECM label tend to emphasise his thoughtful storytelling character, but on a live show in a small room, this fine group’s power in reserve is rousingly unmistakeable.
Alessi visited London with originals from his new Quiver album and its predecessors, delivered by his regular bassist and drummer Drew Gress and Nasheet Waits, and pianist Gary Versace, a recent recruit more widely known as a Hammond organist. The leader immediately set about a typically lucid improvisation of classical-trumpet purity and steadily congruent phrasing on the new album’s wistful Window Goodbyes, gradually altering the texture and shape with rougher tones and flightier skips. The song segued into Gobble Goblins (from 2013’s Baida), a bumpy and angular acceleration of the tempo in which Gress and Waits sometimes followed the staccato lead line and sometimes provocatively skidded off it. Alessi mingled clean high tones and a mellow trombone-like murmur in a theme that began in frosty glimmers and distant trickles of sound, swelled on the rhythm section’s growing intensity, and returned to its introspective opening. The initially playful waltz of I Go, You Go grew funkier over Versace’s grooving chord-playing, before the pianist began whimsically toying with the same repeating figures and then swept them into a tide of Keith Jarrett-like melodious fluency.
It’s jazz of fine details and nuances that have to be listened for, but the famously uber-cool quartet’s inner heat was unmissable on this show.
• At The Blue Lamp, Aberdeen, 17 March. Box office: 0845-111 0302.
