# Video: Nonetheless quality more than surpasses quantity

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2017/09/12/nonetheless-quality-more-than-surpasses-quantity/
- Published: 2017-09-12T19:13:28+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**Those with long memories know that the precedent to this performance reaches far
back. It was actually in 2002 that British trumpeter-composer Byron Wallen performed
original music inspired by Langston Hughes, a key literary voice of the Harlem Renaissance.**

Much has happened in Wallen’s career in the 15 years that have since elapsed, above
all the development of the fine quartet Indigo as well as a hugely diverse range
of work that has seen him score for dance and theatre. For this opening night of
Certain Blacks, a festival dedicated to Harlem, Wallen expands the aforesaid group
to a sextet, and the additional textural richness proves superbly effective.

Having said that, it’s a shame that there is an opening act, the samples-based Addictive
TV, that bears very little connection to the festival theme and whose not uninteresting
trans-continental groove would have better suited a standing, rather than seated,
venue. Furthermore, this means that Wallen’s group does not take the stage until
fairly late in the evening to play a shorter set, to the chagrin of some punters.

![DSC 8794 low-res Sarah Hickson](https://i0.wp.com/www.jazzwisemagazine.com/images/
SEPT2017/DSC_8794_low-res_Sarah_Hickson.jpg?resize=640%2C427)

Nonetheless quality more than surpasses quantity. Wallen’s signature sound for the
original quartet is an artful modal jazz that is decisively enhanced by Larry Bartley’s
pummeling basslines and the subtle funk and reggae inflections of drummer Tom Skinner,
whose snare work, in particular, is sharp and crisp. rather than hard and loud. 
Crucially, Tony Kofi’s baritone sax provides grainy harmonies to the main themes
as well as stinging second basslines, while Tom Dunnett’s trombone and Rowland Sutherland’s
flute bring further orchestral light and shade. As for Wallen, he is both soaring
soloist and engaging narrator-MC, explaining why he chose to write music for Hughes
texts, such as ‘Merry Go Round’ and ‘Ask Ya Mama’, both of which draw out the poet’s
mischievous humour. He also clarifies that Hughes was a largely nomadic figure who
believed in spending no more than six months in a single location. ‘The Journeyman’,
with its subtle rhythmic shifts and harmonic shadow play, is a brilliant evocation
of such restlessness.

In fact, there is occasionally a discreet echo of the famous Mulligan-Baker and 
Mulligan-Farmer piano-less groups, perhaps with the ‘Festive Minor’ vibe pushed 
in a more non-western direction at times. Later in the set a strong flavour of shakuhachi–
something of great interest to both Wallen and Sutherland, who has studied with 
its masters in Japan – can be heard, and all of the players have the chance to solo
at length, impressing with their surges of fire and finesse. Wallen, whose improvisations
strike a fine balance between clarity of narrative and tight control of crescendo
and diminuendo, is keen to make sure that the whole point of the evening – a celebration
of Hughes as a human being as well as a poet – is well to the fore, and his decision
to close proceedings with one of his most resonant and universal pieces, ‘A Dream
Deferred’, strikes a notable chord with the audience. As he recites the timeless
opening lines with their spare, simple, but wholly devastating, images of “a raisin
in the sun” and “a sore that festers and runs” the mood is set for a shape-shifting
arrangement that starts in folksy, melodic peace and bursts into atonality as the
musicians holler “Explode!” like bombs and bullets in an urban riot.

Hughes knew of the beauty of certain blacks, and also their anger at the injustice
of white America. Which is hardly an anachronism for the year of our lord 2017.

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