John Taylor attests his status as a prominent CAM Jazz artist with “Whirlpool”, the second album he records in trio with bassist Palle Danielsson and drummer Martin France, after “Angel of The Presence” (2005). Besides these two titles, the British pianist is present in the Italian label’s catalog with a solo album “Songs and Variations” and with “Where Do We Go From Here?”, a duo with Kenny Wheeler. He also performs on two of the trumpet- and flugelhorn-player’s albums “What Now?”, nominated for a Grammy in 2005, and his next release “Other People”. Another new title is “Pure And Simple”, in the name of the Guildhall Big Band and included in the “CAM Jazz Presents” series dedicated to young talent. This album is made up entirely of tunes composed by John Taylor, on which he performs as special guest.
“Whirlpool” inevitably brings to mind the renown trio by Bill Evans with Scott La Faro and Paul Motian: in addition to Evan’s style, John Taylor makes explicit reference to the famous group, while offering a lot of his own, starting with the crystal-clear class with which he lightly touches the keys of the piano. Three of the eight compositions on the CD are by Kenny Wheeler (Consolation, Nicolette and Everybody’s Song But My Own) and just as many are the pianist’s (the title track, For Aida and The Woodcocks). Completing the picture is Gershwin’s I Loves You Porgy, to which Bill Evans has given many memorable interpretations, and the Christmas carol In The Bleak Midwinter by Gustav Holst. By starting from the thematic material selected for the occasion, “Whirlpool” is a concentrate of musical sensibility: the leader and his two partners build an inseparable entity, just as the Bill Evans trio was. A must mention is the quality of the recording, which took place in October 2005 at Bauer Studios in Ludwigsburg (Germany): as Thomas Conrad rightly mentions in the liner notes of the CD: “The beauty of Whirlpool is not separable from the warmth and clarity and immediacy of its recorded sound.”
Born in Manchester in 1942, John Taylor began to distinguish himself in the lively British jazz scene at the end of the Seventies, playing in groups by saxophonists Alan Skidmore and John Surman. At the beginning of the following decade, he accompanied the singer Cleo Laine and set up a sextet. Still during those years he made his first albums as leader, “Pause And Think Again” (1971) and “Decipher” (1973), and collaborated with saxophonist Ronnie Scott. Then in 1977 John Taylor founded a trio, Azimuth, together with Kenny Wheeler and Norma Winstone. Numerous recordings followed under various leaderships (Wheeler, Surman, Jan Garbarek, Miroslav Vitous, Peter Erskine) and, important to recall, is the fruitful collaboration with Italian jazz singer Maria Pia De Vito.
Swedish Palle Danielsson is considered, for some time now, one of the best jazz bass players, and not just in Europe. Among his very many collaborations, those with Keith Jarrett, Charles Lloyd and Peter Erskine, in trio with John Taylor, stand out most. Martin France hit the spotlight in the Eighties as a member of Loose Tubes and then in groups by keyboardist Django Bates. He has also performed with Lee Kontiz, Dave Holland, Ralph Towner, Nils Peter Molvær and others.