Moving the Music Forward

PHIL BANCROFT has established himself as one of the leading figures on the Scottish jazz scene since emerging as part of the seminal John Rae Collective in the late 80s. We caught up with the Edinburgh-based saxophonist ahead of a Tune Up tour with his current Quartet.

ARTS JOURNAL: Phil, for people not familiar with the group, what is the line up, apart from yourself on saxophones?

PHIL BANCROFT: We have Mike Walker from Manchester on guitar, Steve Watts on bass from London, and the drummer is Thomas Stronen from Norway. It is a really interesting band, and the thought of doing a string of gigs is very exciting musically.

AJ: Is this the first real tour with this band?

PB: Yeah, it’s the first time I have really had a chance to do a tour of this size with my own group, and we are really looking forward to it. I think the music will move on quite a bit as we go. We are going to record a number of the gigs in the latter part of the tour, so I hope we will get a live album out of it. It is unusual for me to be playing so much in such a tight time period with this band, and that should be great. The Tune Up support from the Scottish Arts Council has been critical in that, and one big advantage is that we have been able to pay someone to do all the administration and promotion, which is very difficult and time-consuming to do yourself.
 
AJ: Will the material be the from the band’s Headlong album, or is there newer stuff?

PB: We have some new stuff we have added recently, and I reckon the gig will probably be about 40 percent new material. We will probably add a bit of even newer stuff as we go as well.

AJ: Are they all your own compositions?

PB: It has all been my material so far, although Mike Walker has talked about bringing some material into the band, but it hasn’t happened yet. Mike is quite a chap – he’s not your ordinary sort of bloke, but the music really flows out of him. They are all great to play with, and it is a question of me moving it on – there is so much coming out of the players, and they are all very strong personalities. My challenge is to keep it moving along.

More recently I have brought more harmony into it, but at the same time we have also introduced more open blowing as well

AJ: This band first performed at the Edinburgh Jazz Festival in 2002, but with Reid Anderson of The Bad Plus on bass at that point. What was your thinking in forming the band?

PB: One element of it was Reid. He is a great player. I had worked with him on his own project in Edinburgh, and thought the music was very strong. I knew Mike Walker from years ago when we did the Europhonium project in Glasgow, and we’ve been on various teaching projects as well. I wasn’t sure about the drummer at that point, but Roger Spence [of jazz promoters Assembly Direct] had the group Stahls Bla coming through Edinburgh, and suggested I check out Thomas. I did, and thought yes, that’s a good idea.
 
AJ: So an American-European mix?

PB: At that point, yes. I wanted that mixture of American and European in the band, which I felt reflected what I was about in my own music. I went over to Oslo a couple of times to meet Thomas and we did some jamming, and I felt that was when we really connected. He is very busy and has a young family, so there is often a problem in getting him.

AJ: Was that also the problem with Reid and his escalating commitments with The Bad Plus?

PB: I didn’t know what was going to happen with that, but I knew that was a strong possibility. It became obvious that it wasn’t really going to work because he was so busy with The Bad Plus. Steve Watts is a different kettle of fish, and has different melodic vibe to Reid, but he has grown into what we are doing really well. I wanted to work more with Steve anyway, so I’m totally happy with how it has turned out.

AJ: Has it changed much in those two years?

PB: It’s moved on a bit. Early on it was very much an anti-chord approach. There was a fair bit of harmonic information in there, but it was focused on melody and rhythm. More recently I have brought more harmony into it, but at the same time we have also introduced more open blowing as well.

AJ: You are still playing with your twin brother, Tom, and Kevin MacKenzie in Trio AAB, but what else have you been up to?

PB: Well, I’ve done a whole lot of stuff with the folkies this year, with The Unusual Suspects and With Strings Attached. I enjoyed it a lot – working with Eddi Reader and Justin Currie and Colin McIntyre on With Strings Attached was a new angle for me, and I always enjoy working with [Skye-based trombonist] Rick Taylor, who did the horn arrangements. Some of it was completely written, and other bits were quite improvised. It was a really interesting thing to do, and it was nice to play big halls with sold out audiences.
 
AJ: And what’s in the pipeline?

PB: Moving the quartet forward, for one thing. The education stuff I do with Tom is going very well too, and we are busy with that. I’m also hoping to do a collaborative project with [American pianist] David Berkman this summer, probably with an Octet. We’re also trying to get something going with myself, Aidan O’Rourke of Blazin’ Fiddles, and Brian Finnegan of Flook, who was on the last Trio AAB album.

AJ: What form would that take?

PB: We’re looking at working around that meeting point of melody and traditional melody and improvisation. We’ve been nosing around it for some time, then at Celtic Connections one night we got together for a bit of a jam, and decided to try to move it on if we can. Brian is planning to move to Edinburgh for a year or so, which would make it easier.

The Phil Bancroft Quartet play at the following venues as part of their Scottish Arts Council Tune Up tour:

• An Tobar, Tobermory, Isle of Mull, Tuesday 31 May 2005
• Ceilidh Place, Ullapool, Wednesday 1 June 2005
• Sabhal Mor Ostaig, Isle of Skye, Sunday 5 June 2005

© Kenny Mathieson, 2005