Jones-O’Connor Group - A Crow for Every Crow

JOC Records 001

Released 2007

Paul Jones, piano and keyboard;
Richard Jones, guitar;
Chris O’Connor, double bass;
Mark O’Connor, drums

I missed the trio’s gig in early January – that’s the Group without Richard – so was pleased to be given the opportunity to write this review.
It’s almost 30 months since I was reviewing their debut album ‘alpha’ and recall comments in the press about that album’s ‘sparse and melancholic textures’.

Listening now to ‘A Crow for Every Crow’ I can hear that all over again, though not to say without pleasure. Attending to that reiteration enables me to say that the group’s musical résau has evolved: yes, evolved rather than merely changed; the individual remains subsumed to the collective, but individual skills have developed with growing experience, encouraging further and improved integration of the group’s interaction. I have heard this growth when listening to band members working with other, more established musicians.

These developments have lent themselves to a burgeoning resource pool that includes of course the growing writing skills of Jones and Jones, who share the honours for the 9 tracks on the album. This is bravura: it has a sizeable stylishness; the composition is fresh and inventive and at times capricious and though you may know that the root was planted somewhere between European nu-jazz and post-rock, the whereabouts are penumbrous. Once again, texture is all-important and is assembled with considerable prudence. Its generation is elegant, fluent, nimble and well-dressed: this really is persuasive writing.

I cannot contribute to comments that I have recently read, claiming that the group is “one of the most exciting bands on the music scene today” or “the most exciting band to emerge from the increasingly strong jazz scene there (Cardiff)” and for my money I would add neither live nor on disc, but that criticism is directed at the media, not at this fine band. I can say that I would not describe this excellent album as ‘unputdownable’ because it is much too literate for that. It was perhaps nearer to poetry and I became a very satisfied and complacent listener.

Reviewed by

ken cheetham
January 2008