Christopher Young Quartet

Brood Groove is at times kooky, and surprising, and full of a yearning and a grace…there’s whimsy, and a benign articulation of folly, and the alarming consternations of life in a human skin. The dominant mood is one of celebration, even when these Brood Grooves start getting moody.

The ensemble achieves the gentlest innovations, there’s grunt when needed from the rhythm section, and the sweet and maudlin inventions of Tom Fryer delighting the listener on acoustic guitar. There’s some sublime flute playing, the band discrete, lulling, with hints of sweet disturbance. There are pleasing moments of great restraint, at other times a thrilling excess is achieved, an ecstasy revealed. Some tracks reveal what one might call an Eastern spaciousness. Perhaps this owes something to Mr Young’s studies of the shakuhachi in Japan...‘Brooding Groove’, the almost title track, is haunting, deeply felt, inquisitive and passionate. The delicacy of the ensemble becomes another testament to that compassionate revelation we call jazz.