{"id":386,"date":"2017-06-26T11:55:03","date_gmt":"2017-06-26T11:55:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jamestaylorquartet.co.uk\/jtq\/?p=386"},"modified":"2018-09-27T13:40:56","modified_gmt":"2018-09-27T13:40:56","slug":"thejtqstory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jamestaylorquartet.co.uk\/jtq\/2017\/06\/26\/thejtqstory\/","title":{"rendered":"The JTQ Story"},"content":{"rendered":"

The JTQ Story<\/h3>\n<\/div>

For a quarter of a century, the James Taylor Quartet have set the standard for the coolest sounds in funky acid jazz. On dozens of mighty albums and at their legendary gigs at home and around the world, they\u2019ve quietly become a byword for distinguished British creativity. But the great artists never let the grass grow under their feet, and now James Taylor\u2019s impassioned musical curiosity has led to the most ambitious and exciting project in JTQ\u2019s illustrious history. Allow us to introduce the new album \u2018Closer To The Moon,\u2019 the like of which you\u2019ve never heard \u2014 because in addition to their infectious trademark stylings, the quartet have brought together the worlds of jazz and classical music in a brilliant and unexpected marriage.<\/p>\n

From the moment the metronome counts in at the top of \u2018Tick Tock\u2019 until the conclusion of the typically atmospheric, filmic title tune, \u2018Closer To The Moon\u2019 is a unique listening experience and a career landmark. Not to mention that it sports James\u2019 first-ever lead vocal performance on \u2018Closer To You\u2019 and the little matter of a Beethoven piano sonata.<\/p>\n

On \u2018Closer To The Moon,\u2019 released on his own Real Self label, Taylor\u2019s trusty Hammond and the group\u2019s ever-alluring horns are not content with delivering a range of juicy new jazz flavours. Throughout the record, they\u2019re also conversing with a wild array of classical instrumentation, including celeste, vibes, harp, zither, gong, glockenspiel, even tubular bells, many of them custom-built for the bandleader. \u201cI\u2019ve been into classical music for a long time,\u201d says Taylor. \u201cIt must have the fire to be really good, and when it does, it\u2019s just amazing. You want it to explode the same way you want a Charlie Parker solo to explode, and very often it does.\u201d<\/p>\n

The follow-up to 2011\u2019s acclaimed \u2018The Template,\u2019 the album was inspired by James\u2019 life-changing opportunity to play the organ at the Royal Albert Hall, at the invitation of his longtime friend and collaborator Nitin Sawhney. These guys go back so far, they were at school and in their first band together at 15. \u201cWe were always in the music rooms at school messing about with ideas,\u201dJames remembers. Sawhney was a touring member of JTQ before his solo career beckoned, then Taylor produced Nitin\u2019s debut album, way back in 1990, with the future Anglo-Indian star\u2019s first band the Jazztones.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbout two years ago, Nitin asked me to play the organ [The Sound of Jupiter, as it\u2019s widely known] at the Albert Hall. It was for a 16-minute piece of his that was commissioned by them especially to reawaken interest in that particular instrument.\u201d For Taylor, this was a dream come true. \u201cI was given several days to acquaint myself with the organ, I had the whole Albert Hall to myself and I spent the time blasting away at this incredible instrument. The sound was so powerful, it dwarfed any accompanist, and it was extremely beautiful. The purity of tone took my breath away. I thought wow, I\u2019ve had a lifetime in music, and
\nI\u2019ve just discovered something about the beauty of tone. \u201cI was profoundly nervous to perform the piece in front of a sellout crowd, and then Nitin introduced me as \u2018The UK\u2019s finest organist,\u2019 so no pressure!<\/p>\n

Anyway, it went well, and I found the experience genuinely life-changing. I started a love affair with orchestral sounds, particularly those generated by metal, like celeste, vibes, glock, gong and tubular bells.\u201d After that, there was no stopping him. \u201cI commissioned a new studio to be designed and installed at my house, and I also commissioned an orchestral master craftsman to build for me a set of bells and vibes. I commissioned Yamaha to build me a new celeste, I sourced a harp and a zither, and set about writing this new album, setting the Hammond in among these more classical settings. \u201cI thought \u2018There\u2019s something here to be joined together,\u2019 and I realised it\u2019s not something that\u2019s been massively done. The jazz label CTI released bits of the Brandenburg Concerto played by Hubert Laws, and there\u2019s some funk things in the \u201970s which were classical but really commercial. But to do both things in a serious way, there\u2019s been no real bridge between those two worlds, because they just look in such different directions. It\u2019s really
\ninteresting.\u201d The vocal track \u2018Closer To You\u2019 marks the first time that Taylor has recorded himself as a lead singer. It grew out of the haunting \u2018Closer To The Moon,\u2019 which John Barry himself would have been proud of. \u201cThat particular piece of music lends itself to a baritone,\u201d says Taylor. \u201cSlightly weird and spooky, with lots of reverb. I don\u2019t know who else I\u2019d have used to do a baritone,\u201d he laughs, \u201capart from Frank Sinatra.\u201d Taylor has always been completely his own man, the dark horse who sings in his local Rochester Choral Society and has an entirely separate life as a psychotherapist. It was 1986 when the first Quartet coalesced after the demise of psychedelic mod scenesters the Prisoners. Notice of their dexterity in updating the cinematic jazz sound of the \u201960s and \u201970s, from spy themes to freeform jazz, was duly served with the debut single \u2018Blow Up,\u2019 followed by the \u2018Mission Impossible\u2019 EP. John Peel was soon offering a Radio 1 session.<\/p>\n

The ensuing quarter-century has produced a bulging catalogue of remarkable albums and show-stopping gigs that continue to see JTQ in hot demand everywhere from Ronnie Scott\u2019s to Rome. Along the way, there\u2019ve been chart entries (notably the 1993 hit \u2018Love The Life\u2019 featuring Noel McKoy and the parent album \u2018Supernatural Feeling,\u2019 both of which nestled in the top 40), a MOBO Award nomination for 1998\u2019s \u2018Whole Lotta Live,\u2019 and guest appearances by James with everyone from the Pogues and Manic Street Preachers to Tom Jones\u2019 multi-platinum chart-topper \u2018Reload.\u2019 In a career that has embraced jazz, soul, rock, funk and often tipped its hat to classic detective and action movie soundtracks, JTQ delivered their own filmic moment in 1997, contributing \u2018Austin\u2019s Theme\u2019 to the score album for \u2018Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery.\u2019 In 2007, the band completed their full-scale Motown tribute, \u2018Don\u2019t Mess With Mr. T,\u2019 featuring guest vocalists Omar, Hil St. Soul and Donna Gardier.<\/p>\n

The same year brought both the spinoff project James Taylor\u2019s 4th Dimension and a Ronnie Scott\u2019s Jazz Award nomination for JTQ. That attraction to film music is deep-rooted in Taylor, who still marvels at such timeless images as the opening scene in \u2018The Italian Job,\u2019 where an Alfa Spider speeds through the Italian Alps to the accompaniment of Quincy Jones. \u201cIt\u2019s the excitement of dealing with music that creates that sort of luxurious feeling.\u201d he says. \u201cAnd I find I don\u2019t need to go to the ltalian Alps to do it.\u201d So let\u2019s hear it for a band well past their first quarter-century but still finding new challenges to meet, new peaks to climb. 2013 is looking like another vintage JTQ year. \u201cWhat interests me at the moment is combining those two disparate directions of jazz and classical music,\u201d enthuses Taylor, \u201cbecause there is a point at which they meet, and exploiting that creates
\nsuch an excitement on stage. There\u2019s something to kick against.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paul Sexton<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

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