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It wouldn't really be fair to describe Chick Lyall as the hermit of Scottish jazz. The pianist does have a tendency to drop off the radar, though, and each time he reappears it's clear that he hasn't been idle. Lyall has high pianistic standards to maintain and these were apparent here, as were the kind of compositions – and in one case an arrangement – that, while they may have come together at short notice, suggested long spells on some back-burner of the imagination.
To these elegant new writings was added a new group featuring Colin Steel on trumpet and flugelhorn, Rob Hall on tenor, soprano and sopranino saxophones, double bassist Euan Burton and drummer-percussionist Stu Brown. Lyall used these colours and voicings well in his charts and if they were so carefully plotted as to engender some wariness among the frontline soloists, Lyall himself wasn't so afflicted. His improvisation on his beautifully lyrical – and very recent – tribute to Dave Brubeck confidently encompassed both its inspiration's thoughtfulness and Lyall's own questing spirit.
Another dedication, to the late Blue Note pianist Andrew Hill, introduced another, more grooving, playful and daring style, and the descending horns set against Burton's skipping bass line in Tales from Europe confirmed the consideration Lyall had giving to programming. By the time we reached Lyall's take on Soft Machine's The Man Who Waved At Trains the soloing had loosened up and a final, very distinctive blues produced high-quality blowing that showed why Lyall wants to pursue this line-up further.
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