The National Jazz Trio O Scotland - Standards Vol IV (2018)

It's kind of a double bluff calling it the National Jazz Trio Of Scotland,"" says Bill Wells of a group that is famously neither a jazz band or a trio. ""I was trying to be kind of perverse about it, calling it jazz and then deliberately not having anything that actually related to jazz."" On their latest album, Standards Vol. IV, the National Jazz Trio continue their engagement with classic and outsider pop traditions, subtly building on their characteristic blend of beguiling melodies and spare arrangements. There is even, dare we say it, a hint of jazz. ""For this record, I've opened it out,"" explains Wells. ""There are drums on it, which I haven't really had before, even though they're sampled drums, and there are bits of improvisation like with the viola on 'Passing By' and 'A Quiet Life'. That's the first time there's ever been anything resembling improvisation on a National Jazz Trio album. I wanted something in there that was improvised and quite out there, very out there as it happened."" That latter track also features a sampled irruption of big band jazz, as if Wells is transmitting live from a New Orleans second line, Dictaphone in hand. This decade has seen a flurry activity from Wells. In 2012, he won the inaugural Scottish Album Of The Year award for Everything's Getting Older, a collaboration with Arab Strap's Aidan Moffat. In 2011 he released Lemondale, recorded with Japan-based musicians including Jim O'Rourke and Saya of Tenniscoats. Four years later, he assembled a stellar cast of musicians including Annette Peacock and Yo La Tengo for Nursery Rhymes, an exploration of the darker side of childrens' songs. In addition to the ten Wells originals and a new version of the Aidan Moffat collaboration 'Far From You', Standards Vol. IV features a cover of Richard Youngs' 'Summer ""Summer's Edge"" from the latters's 2005 masterpiece Summer Wanderer. Wells has known Youngs since the 1990s, when they worked together with Future Pilot AKA. ""There's a few people for whom you can justifiably use the word genius and I think Richard is one,"" he declares. ""Again it was to do with Kate's voice and that song suited her voice so well. It's actually quite a radical reinterpretation. The original is a capella, so it gave me that space in which I could do something that was very much my own."" The National Jazz Trio's version taps into the uncanny pastoralism of the original, with Sudgen's clear reading of the melody set against Wells' glistening keyboard samples. ""It's one of my signature sounds,"" Wells adds. It comes from a sample library he and Vulliamy recorded with Teenage Fanclub's Norman Blake a few years ago. ""They're all natural sounds, but they've been mutated. We've been using them on all the albums. I want something to sound like it's my own, so that's as close to making my own instrument as I can get. I like the fact that even though it's on a computer it's not going to be too precise."" That human quality shines through Standards Vol. IV, an album characterised by its gorgeous blend of sophistication and vulnerability.