Pete Roth Trio

Hampstead Jazz Club, London - 01/11/24

Pete Roth Trio/ Bill Bruford, drummer

Imagine three accomplished but rather different musicians, schooled in a whole range of influences and styles, and brought together by a considered, yet freewheeling approach to jazz which takes decades of tradition seriously, but still wishes to do something adventurous with it. Then imagine no more, because this is what the Pete Roth Trio, featuring returned-from-retirement (for this project, at least) drummer Bill Bruford, is starting to sound like.

I say “starting to” not because they lack pedigree, purpose or finesse (far from it), but because there is a deliberately exploratory intention behind the varied setlists they are running out on a short UK tour this November and December, with more promised for 2025. The venues chosen, like the Hampstead one, are tiny (and in cases like this, dark, friendly and cramped), yet ideally suited to keeping chamber jazz alive and kicking against the continuing corporatisation of music.

Teaming up with a progressive rock and fusion/electro/acoustic jazz percussion legend (a designative cliché that actually does little to tell you what he is about musically these days) is proving a great piece of win-win joinery for multifaceted guitarist Roth, bass entrepreneur Mike Pratt, and Bruford himself.

 It enables the drummer to enjoy playing in a genuinely creative and responsive environment without the pressures that come from the large stadiums and expensive tours that used to loom large in his career before a retreat towards academia, and curatorial endeavours like career box sets, in 2009.

For Roth and Pratt, too, a deep shared love of jazz, clear genre-bending tendencies, and the desire not to stand still musically – also hallmarks of Bruford in his journeying from Yes and King Crimson via his own band, and numerous collaborations and excursions, to the ever-evolving shores of interactive/modern jazz – matches their sense of adventure. Similarly, they are all committed to small venues where ideas can be tried out in front of a more knowledgeable and appreciative audience, but with the lure of ‘Bruford re-enlisted’ helping ensure sold-out bookings, albeit with just 50 or so select souls, as here in Hampstead.

The gig itself was joyous, diverse, intrepid and thoroughly enjoyable. The smiles all round, and the between-tunes patter from Roth, were testimony to that. Opening with an adapted version of one of two Charlie Parker classics to adorn the set list, the trio combined colourful covers and improvisations with three original compositions – ‘Trio of Five’, ‘Full Circle’ and ‘Looking Forward to Look Back’.

 The material ventured as far and wide as an improvisation on Dvorak (the well-known largo from Symphony No. 9), a gutsy, fresh take on ‘Summertime’ (Gershwin, 1934/5) and a reworking of Wayne Shorter’s ‘Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum’ which also references John Coltrane’s ‘Giant Steps’ in the shift from Bmaj7 to D7 in its early bars. Then there was an interesting electric version of Bruford’s own ‘If Summer Had Its Ghosts’, from his delicate 1997 acoustic outing with acclaimed guitarist Ralph Towner and bassist Eddie Gómez.

 Inter alia, Roth (whose 2010 MGP album ‘Meridian’ is well worth checking out) has a rich and varied approach to guitar. He can shift from a clean tone to something much murkier, via moments of Bill Frisell-like phasing, shifting, dropping and returning. He and Mike Pratt make ample use of pedals and processing, but in a musical rather than gimmicky way. At one point, Pratt put on a phat, almost P-Funk sound, though it has to be said that this venue did not do him any favours, turning what would have been gorgeous bass tones into something a little too boxy and boomy at times.

One of the originals, ‘Trio of Five’ was based, expectedly, around 5/4. Nothing unusual in itself, but with the capacity to take blues in some quite unpredictable places over chunky chord changes. Both Roth and Pratt clearly have a working knowledge of a range of genres (funk, soul, pop, rock, classical, reggae, electronica and more) in a way which enables them to reference beyond the straight-ahead jazz that shapes their overall approach, while still sounding natural rather than contrived or aimless.

Similarly, in response to the wearisome “Is Bill Bruford really a jazz drummer?” question, the answer is fairly evidently both ‘yes’ and ‘no’, each in a distinctively creative way. He can swing; you can tell he loves Art Blakey, Max Roach and many other drum greats. But he also enjoys messing with the beat no end, and he can bring in intuitive elements from outside the jazz world, too. That includes rhythmic hints from other percussion cultures. Perfect for the territory this trio seems to be looking to plough.

Charlie Parker was an interesting interlocutor in the music of this show for that very reason. He took be-bop forward, appealed to hipsters while pioneering advanced harmonic techniques, and developed interesting altered chords and substitutions. Yet he never lost touch with the audience and retained popular appeal. Not entirely dissimilar to how Bill Bruford sought to utilise electronic drums chordally in his earlier years with the ‘global surprise jazz’ that was his band Earthworks.

From this performance (the set lists will vary each time) this feels like something that could help develop the calling card of the Pete Roth Trio over the coming months. They know the rules and want to break them. Not in order to be perverse or trendy, but so that they can put something rich, worthwhile and fun back into jazz soil.

* The Pete Roth Trio are touring within Britain over the next three months. More at: https://www.peterothtrio.com Bill Bruford’s work can be found at: https://billbruford.com Simon Barrow covered some of his work in progressive rock in the book ‘Solid Mental Grace: Listening to the Music of Yes’ (Cultured Llama, 2018).