The Neil Cowley Trio burst onto the jazz scene in 2006 and quickly blazed a trail through it with the invention, potency, and drive of their music. A slew of albums followed with a BBC Jazz Award for one of them, Displaced. In 2017, though, Neil Cowley chose to pause proceedings to concentrate on performing and recording as a solo artist. But then, last November in London, after 12 months in the planning, the Neil Cowley Trio played their first gig in seven years.
Taking its title from Entity, the Neil Cowley Trio’s seventh studio album in total and the first from the reconvened trio of Cowley (piano), Rex Horan (bass) and Evan Jenkins (drums), a tour of the UK and Europe has duly followed. The Entity Tour is now well into its stride and following last week’s show in Manchester, Neil Cowley asserted, “we’re getting really quite good now.” Well, by the time the three musicians finish here in Leeds tonight, they must be bordering on the superb.
Four tracks into this performance and Neil Cowley steps away from his Steinway piano and addresses the audience for the first time this evening. As well as amusing anecdotes about having stayed in a hotel last night that lay in the grounds of a genomic research facility and an earlier review of this tour which ambiguously, if not contradictorily, used the terms “seasoned” and “under rehearsed” to describe the trio, Cowley tells us that tonight they will play a selection of material from Entity and a “some of their greatest hits.” To the creation of such electrifying music, we can now safely add self-deprecation and a great sense of humour to the Neil Cowley Trio’s many attributes.
There is also a playfulness present in those first four tracks of the evening, all of which are taken from Entity. ‘Marble,’ ‘Lemon Meringue,’ ‘Adam Alphabet,’ and ‘Brood.’ Neo-classicism blurs seamlessly into instrumental pop by way of dreamlike ambience and some propulsive, hook-laden beats. Under rehearsed, they are not; the years apart just melting away as the three musicians play as one, with intuition and fraternal love and respect for each other’s talent and artistry.
As the Neil Cowley Trio delve into their pre-hiatus back catalogue, their 2016 album Spacebound Apes comes well represented, first by ‘Governance’ and then ‘Garden of Love’ and ‘Sharks of Competition.’ This is hypnotic music, replete with jazz-inflected grooves, melodic phrasing, and synergy. As the trio begin to shift through their beautifully nuanced gears, a short intermission arrives too soon.
After the break, the Neil Cowley Trio go even further back in time. ‘Queen’, from 2014’s Touch and Flee, stretches out, yet still remains bold and direct. Later, they go right back to the beginning by revisiting ‘How Do We Catch Up’ from the debut album Displaced. As the piece builds up a tremendous head of steam, Cowley removes his spectacles, stands up from the piano stool and begins hammering merry hell out of those keys like some latter-day Jerry Lee Lewis. It is as dramatic as it is powerful.
There is even time for Neil Cowley to return to the stage alone for the first of two richly deserved encores, where he plays a beautiful solo piano piece for a chap called William in the audience whose birthday it is today. As Horan and Jenkins join him and his pet dinosaur once more for one final, triumphant hurrah, it is then off to the Cheltenham Jazz Festival. They are in for a rich and expressive treat in Gloucestershire tomorrow.
Photos: Simon Godley
More photos of Neil Cowley Trio at Howard Assembly Room in Leeds
