If Destroyed Still True - Seven Dials

This Leeds-based sextet were winners of the Jazz Services Promoters Choice Award for 2008, although I don’t think Scottish audiences have yet had a chance to check them out. On the evidence of this debut CD, they were worthy winners of the accolade. Their music is uncompromisingly contemporary, creating knotty swathes of high-energy improvisation around their own spiky compositions, leavened with a more folk-ish feel here and there.

Saxophonist Simon Taylor and trumpeter Simon Beddoe are both strong and imaginative players, while pianist Johnny Tomlinson and guitarist Nick Tyson weave a rich and complex harmonic web, and add their own meaty solo contributions. The band’s rhythmic energy, fuelled by bassist Seth Bennett and drummer Tommy Evans, is equally striking. A name to watch.

(GLP)