PRESS / f-ire

From Guardian - 11 Jan 2005

F-ire Collective: St Cyprian's/Spitz, London 3/5, 5/5

From students to budding stars, young folk singers and samba bands to jazz virtuosi, the London-based F-ire Collective embrace a remarkable amount of creative music-making.

The Collective has been showcasing the diversity of its informal membership at various venues over the past week. Saturday's Spitz performance - involving saxophonist Stephane Payen, Royal Academy of Music students and the French-Belgian trio Octurn - has already rocketed into my list of 2005 shows that will be hard to match.

Last week's opener at St Cyprian's Church was devoted less to jazz and more to offbeat contemporary song, with three duos featuring vocalists. Deborah Jordan's flexible, eloquent voice and the formidable pianist Robert Mitchell's mix of jazz references and classical precision gave both contemporary improvised music and soul ballads fresh spins. The flute-like, storytelling singer Julia Biel then unfolded some soft Latin and ethereal music with acoustic guitarist Jonny Phillips, and a young folk singer, Olivia Chaney, demonstrated with harpist Sefa Steer that F-ire's magnetism for new talent extends in many directions.

At the Spitz, after a tricksy large-group set from the Royal Academy band and Payen, Octurn played a more dazzling set than might have seemed possible from a trombone/bass guitar/drums lineup. Trombonist Geoffroy de Masure, a brilliant inheritor of the techniques of the German veteran Albert Mangelsdorff, gave a stunning display of tonal variety, rhythmic surprises and melodic invention. Drummer Chander Sardjoe's rolls and cymbal sound contrasted with episodes of metronomic minimalism, and bassist Jean-Luc Lehr's lyrical six-string bass solos were shapely. It was Steve Coleman meets the Bad Plus. Sensational.

John Fordham