Tip Top! Fraser Smith

• 1 Might Not 05:51
• 2 Iroquois 05:17
• 3 Tip Top! 04:35
• 4 Whaddya Know? 04:28
• 5 Prisoner of Love 06:35
• 6 Pip 05:23
• 7 Wardell 03:50
• 8 Out Into the Daylight 05:08
• 9 Bluey 05:33
• 10 Snow Off Broadway 03:12
• Total Runtime 49:52

Info for Tip Top!

Some jazz musicians can’t help but devote themselves to a specific idiom or era. This is usually a necessity borne out of love and can thereby generate a heartfelt sincerity often absent from the self-consciously cutting-edge. Though nostalgia and romanticism for the ‘Golden Era’ of jazz - usually encased between the carefree 1920s and the moon landings - undoubtedly colour this view, it remains true that many of our finest instrumentalists, singers and fans alike have preferred to peer round the ultra-modern corner, back home to the past. The best of the artists who perform in older styles always avoid pastiche and manage to make bygone music - tied so utterly to specific social-history - seem completely relevant here and now. Fraser Smith is such an artist and TIP TOP! is his brilliantly executed love-child.

One of the leading saxophonists in the UK, Fraser is a devotee of an almost-extinct breed of saxophonist who consistently play with deep feeling, attitude and commitment to the cause - swing. Thus, four of his primary inspirations are: Dexter Gordon, Illinois Jacquet, Stanley Turrentine and Al Cohn. The so-called soul-jazz movement of the 1960s, in which Turrentine was a major player and Jacquet and Gordon dabbled, beamed with the sound of Hammond Organ, guitar grease and Boogaloo-bop. A style seldom performed or assimilated today, Fraser spent many years fronting successful groups in this mode, using organ and/or guitar as the main harmonic setting for his boss-horn tenor. Tip Top!, however, is a fully acoustic, ‘classic’ jazz quartet recording firmly stationed in the 40s/50s Be-bop zone. All the melodies except one (‘Prisoner of Love’) are original compositions, contra-facts on harmony from common-practise jazz repertoire.

Each of the 10 tracks possess a feeling of urban life: forward motion; surprise; mortar; Americano-vitality. The combination of strength in composition and confident delivery from all members of the group generates this positive and propulsive mood: the robust rhythm section of Rob Barron, Steve Brown and Simon Read all share their leader’s passion for swing and bop on their respective instruments. The urban consciousness also comes, undoubtedly, from the recording process at Durham Studios where, in typical ‘old-school’ fashion, the quartet recorded straight to tape.

Note-worthy performances include the opening piece ‘Might Not’ - a fiery shuffle showcasing drummer Steve Brown’s perfect driving time feel, not bossy or over- bearing; always deeply musical. Fraser starts as he means to go on - with gusto and flare, his tone dignified and rich.

With a spirit similar to Jimmy Raney’s composition ‘Parker 51’ and the same literary trick George Coleman used to title his ‘Apache’, ‘Iroquois’ is an intricate melody written over Ray Noble’s ‘Cherokee’, a cornerstone piece in the history of Be-bop. It is Smith’s tribute to his time spent in America in 2007 which he described as a ‘life-changing experience.’ The tough chord changes are navigated with a springy ease, Smith demonstrating his sensational gift for improvising impactful ideas clear as California sky.

‘Pip’ is named after Charles Dickens’ beloved character from Great Expectations. With an irresistible funky groove, the piece possesses a certain energy akin to the Branford Marsalis Quartet, culminating in a rousing interplay between all the members of the group at the end of the take.

‘Out Into The Daylight’ is a melody on stimulants, written over the harmony of Jerome Kern’s masterpiece ‘The Way you Look Tonight’. The group shine as one, locked together like bricks but somehow free as birds. Simon Read’s consistently hard-swinging bass beautifully grounds everything, almost disappearing into its own precision.

‘Snow off Broadway’ is Smith’s setting of a specific moment in time - sitting in a warm bar watching the blizzard after having played in Kansas Smitty’s on Broadway Market. That ever-present city-feel is especially vivid and in its joyful samba rhythm, pianist Rob Barron takes a typically inventive solo; thoughtful and radiating the same controlled power heard in pianists like Kenny Barron.

Other contra-facts are ‘Whaddaya Know?’, written over ‘Woody’n’You’ and the title track ‘Tip Top!’, a Charlie Parker-style amalgamation of ‘I Got Rhythm’ and ‘Honeysuckle Rose’. ‘Bluey’ and ‘Wardell’ are blues pieces, the latter named for another of Smith’s heroes - 40’s pioneer and unsung hero of the Tenor Sax, Wardell Gray.

After a while, in spite of your influences, you end up playing who you are in jazz - your personality starts to come out in a strange, abstract whole. Thankfully Fraser Smith is an interesting person with barrel loads of passion, humour and will-to-live which you’ll hear on this recording. He doesn’t re-invent the wheel and doesn’t want to. He carries the Bop baton in a galloping Soho swag, reminding us all of the undeniable truth, as Illinois Jacquet did in 1957, that ‘Swing’s the thing!’ (By Fraser Urquhart)

Fraser Smith, tenor saxophone
Rob Baron, piano
Simon Read, bass
Steve Brown, drums

Fraser Smith
Saxophonist and bandleader Fraser Smith was born in Birmingham, grew up in Wales and now lives in London. He left the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama with a first class degree and then went on to finish a Masters Degree at Trinity Conservatoire. Influenced by the big tenor saxophonists of the last century such as Illinois Jacquet, Dexter Gordon, Lester Young and Hank Mobley, Fraser stays stylistically close to those jazz influences and his original compositions channel the energy of hard-bop.

His band, Fraser and the Alibis, are Fraser on tenor sax, Joe Webb (organ), Harry Sankey (guitar) and Gethin Jones (drums). The four originally met at the Royal Welsh College in Cardiff and have been together for a number of years playing their own inspired compositions. They ‘channel the intensity and feel good effect of the swing and jive music of the dance hall era, combined with the intricacies and virtuosities of later jazz movements’.

After playing approximately 400 gigs together over the last decade and with various bands at Ronnie Scott’s Club, Brecon, Birmingham, London, Cheltenham and Swansea jazz festivals, they released their debut album in 2017.

This album contains no booklet.