June Tabor, Iain Ballamy, Huw Warren – Quercus (2013) [HRA FLAC 24bit/44,1kHz]

June Tabor, Iain Ballamy, Huw Warren – Quercus (2013)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44.1 kHz | Time – 59:31 minutes | 556 MB | Genre: Jazz
Official Digital Download – Source: highresaudio.com | @ ECM Records GmbH
Recorded: March 2006 by Paul Sparrow. Mixed at Rainbow Studio by Jan Erik Kongshaug and Manfred Eicher

‘Quercus’ means ‘oak’ in Latin and the roots of this particular tree dig deep into British folk music, while leaves and branches reach upward to embrace jazz-inspired lyrical improvising. The trio features the venerable English singer June Tabor whose dark voice has an uncanny ability to underscore the emotional essence of a ballad: “As I get older, I understand more the depths of sorrow and joy that made the song”, she has said. Tabor, who was recently voted BBC Folk Awards Singer Of The Year, is joined in the Quercus project by Welsh jazz pianist and composer Huw Warren, and by English saxophonist Iain Ballamy, well-known to ECM listeners as co-leader of the band Food. This is the first Quercus album but the trio has existed already for seven years, patiently developing its unique idiomatic blend.

Quercus was born from the lineup that appeared on June Tabor’s stellar At the Wood’s Heart from 2005. Huw Warren, her longstanding pianist and musical director, invited saxophonist Iain Ballamy (who records for ECM with his group Food), whom he had played with previously in various live settings. Both men are seasoned jazzmen and improvisers. The trio hit it off and toured, developing new material as they went. This date was captured live in 2006. Obviously, this is not a jazz record in any normative sense. But this doesn’t mean that jazz doesn’t make its presence felt on these strikingly adapted traditional songs and standards. Of course, given that Tabor is the greatest living British folksinger, the music of the Celtic and British Isles traditions informs virtually everything here. On Robert Burns’ “Lassie Lie Near Me,” Tabor offers her completely empathic, autumnal read of the poet’s lyric, Ballamy follows her as a second voice, following the melody and shifting its accents to draw the listener in closer. On the instrumental break, he and Warren engage in brief yet gorgeous interplay. William Shakespeare’s “Come Away Death” begins almost as a drone chant, with only the singer and saxophonist. When Warren enters, he does so haltingly. Tabor completely carries the melody; she fully inhabits the lyric and brings us inside it as Ballamy illuminates the subtleties in its meaning. Warren enters halfway through and engages him in winding through the simple chord structure and the pair engage in shimmering, emotive improvisation. On George Butterworth’s setting of A.E. Houseman’s 1896 poem “The Lads in Their Hundreds,” the pianist introduces Tabor. Her smoky, restrained delivery carries within it all the melancholy of the world, despite the sweet song melody. Warren’s economical arpeggios are graceful, elegant, and Ballamy falls in beside him in the break, offering his horn as a vocal counterpart. “Teares” is a glorious piano solo, while “Brigg Fair” is mightily performed by Tabor a cappella. The Mack Gordon/Harry Warren tune “This Is Always” is the only jazz standard; she’s not always been successful at interpreting them, but she nails this one while radically revisioning it. The one contemporary song, David Ballantine’s “A Tale from History (The Shooting),” is the only track here performed without rearrangement; the songwriter should, however, just turn the song over — this group’s performance is definitive. There are a couple of British pop tunes here in Les Barker and Yosef Hadar’s “Who Wants the Evening Rose” and in closer “All I Ask of You,” a torch song that Ballamy and pianist Django Bates adapted from Gregory Norbet’s melody for their 1990s band Loose Tubes. That said, Tabor’s performance renders all previous versions as building blocks for this one. From the pristine recording quality to the stirring, poetic performances, Quercus is exceptional. One can only hope this is not the last installment for this group, and, if so, that Tabor and Warren appear on ECM more often. -AllMusic Review by Thom Jurek

Tracklist:
1. Lassie Lie Near Me 05:11
2. Come Away Death 06:35
3. As I Roved Out 06:00
4. The Lads in Their Hundreds 05:40
5. Teares 03:57
6. Near But Far Away 07:31
7. Brigg Fair 02:30
8. Who Wants the Evening Rose 04:45
9. This Is Always 04:39
10. A Tale from History (The Shooting) 04:35
11. All I Ask of You 08:03

Personnel:
June Tabor, voice
Iain Ballamy, tenor and soprano saxophones
Huw Warren, piano

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mqs.link_JuneTabrIainBallamyHuwWarrenQuercus2013HRA24441.rar