SEMA4 by ARQ – Alison Rayner Quintet

SEMA4 is the new album from ARQ, the Alison Rayner Quintet, recorded at the Vortex Jazz Club in Dalston, East London. This thrilling performance was not originally planned for release, but after listening to the recording, bassist-composer Rayner knew the band had created something that may not have happened in a studio. “You sometimes have to compromise on certain things with a live recording but I felt we had achieved a great vibe and energy, something really special.”

Rayner, guitarist Deirdre Cartwright, pianist Steve Lodder, saxophonist Diane McLoughlin and drummer Buster Birch certainly have a ‘vibe’ of their own.
But, more importantly, these are top-notch musicians who have 12 years of shared history, and the strong bond between the players is absolutely crucial to Rayner.

“I wanted the sensibility of a group where you rehearse together and work together and didn’t want a situation where I’d have deps,” she explains. “That to me felt very important, to establish a connection, where you’re writing for people in the band. When you work with people for years then you’re really hearing the way they play.”

Stylistically, the quintet casts its net far and wide. Rayner, who counts Weather Report and Pat Metheny among her primary sources of inspiration, is as comfortable drawing on folk and pop as she is jazz-rock or Latin music. The bright opener of the set, ‘Espíritu Libre’ inspired by a trip to the Basque country, evokes rolling hills and glinting sunlight while ‘Trip Dance’ has a slightly Balkan feel with phrases set in odd meters. ‘Semaphore’ is built on a loping, intriguing theme that makes an unexpected shift into hybrid reggae. As for the title it is a humourous scrambling of meanings. “I said we’ll work on this piece in 7/4, but Buster heard semaphore. In music we do many things with signals. We have lots of non-verbal communication.”

If there is camaraderie in the quintet then Rayner puts it down to longstanding creative relationships and friendships. She and Cartwright were part of a feminist rock band in the mid 1970s, and Rayner has known Lodder and McLoughlin for over 30 years. Birch taught with Rayner at the University of Glamorgan’s jazz summer school. “We hit it off. I loved his playing and we started working together.”

Indeed the chemistry between Birch and Rayner is a major foundation of the quintet’s sound, as both are able to drive the material forward and also let it breathe when appropriate. Their band mates are equally versatile and impactful. Deirdre Cartwright is a deeply expressive guitarist who produces finely wrought, bluesy, soulful melodic lines. Steve Lodder is a pianist-keyboardist with as much sensitivity as energy and Diane McLoughlin is intensely lyrical on both tenor and soprano saxophones.

The band’s last album, the critically acclaimed Short Stories, was released five
years ago, and SEMA4 marks an exciting stage in its ongoing development. With
her rich tone and measured phrasing Rayner makes an assured bandleader, improviser and composer but she has left room for other members to bring their ideas to the table. McLoughlin’s mellow, meditative ‘Looking For A Quiet Place’, hails the need for calm amid today’s disruptions, while Lodder’s breezily swinging ‘Hamble Horror’ evokes the escape of a hero from a watery disaster. As for Cartwright’s ‘Signals From Space’ it is inspired by the vibrations from a neutron star that are picked up on earth, with the guitarist’s smartly picked harmonics adding to the fraught, eerie atmosphere.

In other words the Alison Rayner quintet is a band in which the cohesion and unity of the players does not prevent their strong individual personalities from shining through. “The group began with only my pieces and it’s gradually become more collaborative,’ she notes. “Everybody contributes. I think that’s what has made us into a real band.” SEMA4 vividly captures this real band at the
peak of its creative powers.

ARQ combine richly nuanced compositions, rhythmic interplay and folk-infused melodies, creating a strong sense of narrative and cinematic quality.

ARQ play 'songs without words' and are lauded for vibrant, communicative performances.

Winners ‘Ensemble of the Year’ 2018 Parliamentary Jazz Awards
Alison Rayner Winner 2019 The Ivors Academy Composer Award

Website: www.alisonrayner.com

alisonrayner.com