Brian Molley Quartet
Colour and Movement
BGMM
THE COLOUR and movement mentioned in the title are articulated in twelve tracks embracing twelve different keys and a variety of time signatures but forget technical detail, this is music that communicates through its sheer attractiveness.
Saxophonist Brian Molley came late to recording, releasing his first album, Clock, in 2013 after many years of concerts, sessions and theatre work, and this second instalment from his quartet finds him creating similarly luxuriant melodies, dancing metres and warm atmospheres with the benefit of the group’s foreign travels and gigging experience as a unit.
The Pushkar Push evokes a camel festival they encountered in India with its slow, relaxed rhythm. Picayne Slinky has drummer Stuart Brown fashioning a crisp New Orleans accent and features a typically creative piano solo from the increasingly impressive Tom Gibbs, and bassist Mario Caribe switches to guitar for the flute-led Brazilian sashay of A Borboleta.
Molley himself is marvellous, always expressive and absolutely sure-footed. Superb readings of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory ballad, Cheer Up Charlie, a disguised That Old Black Magic and a reed chorale take on Ellington’s Solitude offer known quantities, but Molley’s brilliantly written originals will quickly become just as familiar.
Rob Adams
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here