Roller Trio - The King's Place Review
Roller Trio are the Leeds based Jazz crusaders forging a new path for modern British Jazz. Their members are; James Mainwaring on tenor sax, Luke Wynter on guitar and Luke Reddin-Williams on drums. Their debut self-titled album won the prestigious Peter Whittington Jazz award, best newcomers at the JazzFM awards and they were also nominated for the Best Jazz act at the MOBOs and album of the year at the Barclaycard Mercury Prize. When I heard these guys were going to be playing at the Kings Place near Kings Cross I decided to grab a ticket and come along.
Roller Trio took the stage just after eight to a subdued seated crowd. They went straight into the fantastic Deep Heat, which starts off with a stuttered sax solo before being joined by nice mid paced drums and a cool bass riff. The track changes tempo a number of times throughout the length of it creating an interesting variety of sounds and styles. They followed Deep Heat up with a brief introduction of the of the band and then jumped into the eight minute epic that is Roller toaster. This is a much more mellow track that allow the sax to take centre stage alongside furious drums and an ominous bass from the guitar. The drums are tight and crispy with plenty of high hat and the guitar underlines the whole track with heavy bass but it's the saxophonist that shows his true mastery of his instrument on this track. At times producing the subtlest sounds whilst at others showing the strength of the instrument.
The Nail that stands up was our next treat, one of my favourite tracks from the trio. Again nice bass with melodic sax underpinned by a nice mid tempo beat. This tune really shows of the style of the group. They then went onto play a new track, yet to be released called Reef Nut, which was enjoyable and showed a mastery of their instruments and also that they were clearly having fun with the music they were creating. They went through a number of joints including the superb Interrupters amongst others. This track is easily one of their best; with the guitar and sax working together over hectic drumming building to a crescendo. The band creates an interesting sound that moves from mellow and subdued to fast paced and hectic. The drums at times reach almost Drum N Bass speeds and the sax goes form hauntingly soft to loud and strong. You could easily be fooled into thinking that the guitar is taking a back seat until you realise the over powering bass it provides not to mention its at times rock like riffs. From Drum N Bass tinged tracks to more mellow tunes with a few joints that could easily be found on a 70s cop show soundtrack these guys really put together a nice show.
The band stayed on stage for about an hour before departing only to return with one more joint. They put on a great show, impressing me a newcomer to their sound. The crowd were obviously enjoying the show but the seated venue was too restrictive in my opinion. I would love to see these guys do a longer show in a less restricted venue like the Jazz Café where people could dance and not just sit in seats nodding and clapping. However that does not diminish their performance, which was great and fulfilling. A talented group who I hope to see again.