Trish Clowes, Pizza Express Jazz

Precocious British sax talent Trish Clowes and her star-studded Tangent quintet (Gwilym Simcock, Chris Montague, Calum Gourlay, James Maddren) are back with music from their latest album, Pocket Compass.
A fascinating blend of jazz, improv and contemporary classical (Clowes cites American composer John Adams as one of her major influences) it’s a difficult record to pin down, but that’s the way the saxophonist likes it. In a recent interview with the Telegraph she expressed a refreshing lack of respect for musical genre, saying: “I think there’s a real core of people who want to be surprised and don’t pay attention to boundaries between music.”
Her aim is to play music that makes you think, apparently, and Pocket Compass certainly does that. The record was launched at the 2014 London Jazz Festival – along with Clowes’ curiously titled special commission “The Fox the Parakeet & The Chestnut” – when Tangent took the stage with the BBC Concert Orchestra, who feature on three of the album’s tracks.
There’s no chance of squeezing all those violins into the intimate confines of Soho’s Pizza Express Jazz Club, but maybe that’s no bad thing. Here the focus will be firmly on the quintet and their intricate interplay; and what a quintet it is. Simcock is a leading light of the British jazz scene, a pianist who has already spawned legions of imitators; Montague is the innovative guitarist behind UK band Troyka; and bass and drum team Gourlay and Maddren are two of the most in demand musicians on the British scene.