Jamil Sheriff Big Band - Ichthyology (2010)

Pianist/composer Jamil Sheriff, a pivotal figure in the influential jazz programme at Leeds College of Music, has made a real difference to the vitality of the jazz scene in the north. Ichthyology was commissioned in 2010 by the PRS for Music Foundation – and Sheriff's affection for 1960s hard-bop gives the soloists in a fine northern orchestra (including saxophonists Joel Purnell and Tori Freestone) their cues. A classic late-50s modal-jazz hook launches the intricate Future Car; the title track swaps sumptuous brass and sax phrases expanded on by Sheriff and the trumpets; Jamie Taylor's edgy fusion guitar burns through TTF; and Purnell's electronic EWI sax adds unusual pungency. Sheriff's inventiveness can tempt him into piling everything he knows into a song, and the band sometimes swaps themes so restlessly that daydreams of minimally eventful ECM sessions can distract the mind. But the leader is often inspired at updating the straight-ahead, and the stomping Blues Through the Night, a traditional hard-groover that would blow the roof off in a live show, is an exuberant episode to savour from this accomplished session. ~John Fordham