Phil Robson
Six Strings and the Beat
BDV 2876

“…a hot contender among European releases for 2008” **** John Fordham, Guardian May 2008

“…his best album to date.” Stuart Nicholson, Jazzwise Magazine May 2008

Tracklisting:

All music, incl. lyrics on track 4, written by Phil Robson
special guest:Christine Tobin,vocals on tracks 4 and 7

Personnel:
Phil Robson guitar
Peter Herbert double bass
Gene Calderazzo drums
Emma Smith violin
Jenny May Logan violin
Naomi Fairhurst viola
Kate Short cello

Originally composed for a commision for Derby Jazz Week in 2007.

Phil Robson's new release on Babel demonstrates the thrilling developments he has made as an innovative composer and arranger as well as an award-winning, world-beating guitarist. Originally commissioned by his home town Derby's Jazz Week, Six Strings and the Beat, with its combination of string quartet and jazz trio, is a multi-faceted revelation with Robson meticulously researching his sources and inspirations from a wide spectrum that includes Malian singer Oumou Sangare , Bartok, Ornette Coleman and music associated with Americana along with Robson's unique facility and sensitive grasp of the US jazz tradition from Wes Montgomery, Pat Martino through to Jimi Hendrix.

His own playing and its range is demonstrated by his diversity of work even by just taking the past year as an example, co-leading the long-standing band Partisans with saxophonist Julian Siegel, an exciting tour with Dave Liebman earlier in 2008 (“home-grown guitarist Phil Robson's international stock continues to rise, both as player and composer” said the Evening Standard), and his ongoing work with vocalist Christine Tobin. Six Strings and the Beat is an extension of his work from several years ago titled, Behind the Net Curtain.

Emma Smith and Jennymay Logan are known for their work with Mercury-nominated Basquiat Strings, former Austrian Jazz Musician of the Year Peter Herbert is one of the most exciting, virtuoso double bassists currently on the scene (who has also collaborated extensively with Christine Tobin and Huw Warren) while US-born dynamo drummer Gene Calderazzo has an enviable reputation as a member of Partisans and cellist Kate Shortt, a dynamic solo performer in her own right, is also on Christine Tobin's new CD Secret Life of a Girl.

Even before the release, the project has been making waves. The critics were instantly wowed by the first live performances. John Fordham, writing in the Guardian in a live review of the Derby Jazz Festival was in no doubt that, "... the sensation was guitarist Phil Robson's Six Strings and the Beat project, for guitar trio and string quartet. This inspired crossover is a real achievement for Robson and should go down among the year's jazz landmarks."

Critic Jack Massarik was also hugely impressed with the live premiere at the Vortex, writing in the Evening Standard , “Robson is a top-class soloist but an unknown force as a composer. It was thus a revelation to find him capable of remarkably sophisticated writing for string quartet, voice and rhythm section.”

The studio recording, made soon afterwards,(with the addition of two tracks titled ‘Wishing Well' and ‘Hold You', that feature first-class guest vocalist Christine Tobin) completely justifies this kind of high praise.

Highlights from the 12 tracks include:

‘Songbird' is inspired by the music of Mali in West Africa , especially that of the vocalist Omou Sangare and on the opening, cellist Kate Short manages to get the effect of a kora.

'Louisiana' is a dramatic, poignant piece written in remembrance of Hurricane Katrina with echoes of guitarist Bill Frisell's writing and a coda that calls to mind Radiohead . Robson says he wanted to evoke “a soundscape relating to images of small town America . Rather than go for a jazz or second line influence in the music I lent towards a general feeling of Americana in that piece”.

'The Mook' is a distinctive, sizzling tribute to Ornette Coleman with improvisation from the strings as well as Robson.

'Quick Silver' calls on the work of Bartok with some fascinating abstract textures and Peter Herbert's fascinating double bass solo an added highlight.

His two albums on Babel feature some of the most important musicians around who are always keen to work with him including John Taylor on ‘Impish', and, Billy Hart and Marc Copland on ‘Screenwash'. He works also with the Liam Noble Quartet and Alec Dankworth trio. His recent live work with Dave Liebman drew gasps from people who were lucky enough to catch it early in 2008 and confirmed his reputation as a unique contemporary International jazz guitarist.

“Robson is a fascinating UK one-off: a guitarist with an explicitly pre-Hendrix/McLaughlin/Scofield devotion to straightahead jazz swing (which qualifies him for the BBC Big Band), but whose curiosity runs much wider. His reputation is international: he has worked with former Miles Davis musicians such as drummer Billy Hart and saxophonist Dave Liebman. String quartets are often consigned to classy riff-playing in jazz, but the four women in Robson's project (particularly cellist Kate Short) all improvise and converse with the jazz players (Robson, bass virtuoso Peter Herbert and drums firebrand Gene Calderazzo), and the ideas touch on Bartók quartets, Mahavishnu Orchestra-like dramatic hooks and ingeniously fluent bop guitar that even Barney Kessel fans could relate to. The album doesn't entirely sustain the melodic fizz of its early tracks, but the insistent motifs of Rubber Duck, the rapturous atonality of Quicksilver, the slowly winding melody of Wishing (with Christine Tobin's voice), the ecstatic whirl of The Mook and the sparse rock electronics rising out of a sighing-strings dreamscape on Lousiana amount to a hot contender among European releases for 2008.”
John Fordham **** CD review May 1008

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