Euan Burton has made a habit of appearing with some of the brightest talents on both sides of the Atlantic over the past few years and the opportunity of having arguably the pick of the current New York crop, saxophonist Walter Smith III, join his working quartet adds a further feather in the East Kilbride-born bassist's cap.
It was a case of Smith joining rather than starring in, too, as he immediately showed an affinity for the suite that comprises Burton's most recent album, Occurrences, and was featured in its entirety here.
Smith's tenor fitted in naturally alongside Adam Jackson's fine alto playing, adding a superbly well-judged harmony to the melodic lines that Burton's piece spins in a variety of tempos, and his soloing, while illustrating his attractively muscular tone and an ability to develop an idea cogently and compellingly, was entirely in keeping with the mutually compatible temperament of the band as a whole.
Another coup in Burton's group is in having drummer James Maddren, one of the most in-demand players on the London scene, alongside Jackson and the consistently imaginative Tom Gibbs on piano. Maddren's touch, as indeed his whole approach, is entirely at the service of the music as it unfolds and his vision and alert reactions lend shape and support to the compositional structure and spontaneously created ideas alike. Alertness was a definite asset on the night and Burton earned special praise for coping when the spike on his bass gave way, causing him to suddenly reach unnaturally downwards, and carrying on to the coda with admirable poise.
Euan Burton Quartet with Walter Smith lll
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