Patchwork Jazz Orchestra - The Adventures of Mr Pottercakes (2019)

Maybe the quickest way to sum-up Patchwork Jazz Orchestra's The Adventures Of Mr Pottercakes would be to appropriate the title of The Who's 1971 compilation album, Meaty Beaty Big And Bouncy. For that is exactly what it is and quite a bit more besides. From the very start of the opening title track, there's a reminder of that other big band of young British jazz musicians, Loose Tubes. But since so many of today's leading British jazz musicians emerged from the Tubes' collective there are inevitably going to be some residual influences around. This fleeting resemblance to their jazz forbears is not sustained since this seventeen-piece big-band possesses its own characteristic sounds and devices. It also enjoys an abundance of virtuosic talent. But the underlying influences are actually quite diverse in range. For example, James Davison's dirge "The Boy Roy" could have been a Duke Ellington or Charles Mingus-inspired composition. The semi-lugubrious mood is no doubt assisted by the heavy brass interventions from Jamie Pimenta, Yusuf Narçin and Tom Smith.