Midas

Released earlier this year by the F-ire Collective label, Midas is a display of originality, musical finesse and is a noteworthy statement by the young British pianist John Turville. Turville, originally trained classically at Cambridge University before studying at Guildhall, must certainly be proud of his début recording as a leader – the majority of the album has been written by him and the tracks which haven’t have been reworked with considerable elegance.

Turville’s versatility is notable, from playing tango with Tim Garland and Eduardo Vassello and in Tim Garland’s Lighthouse Trio to playing Fender Rhodes in the electric Miles-based Dog Soup, and is replicated by those within the trio. Chris Hill, on bass, has played with a huge variety of artists in both the pop world – including Damon Albarn and Katie Melua – and the jazz world – Jamie Cullum, Martin Taylor and Gilad Atzmon amongst others. On drums is Ben Reynolds, part of the BBC award-winning band Fraud. He has also toured extensively with Stan Sulzmann, Mark Lockheart and Jackie Dankworth. The singer Brigitte Beraha furthers the array of talent on three of the ten-track Midas.

The album kicks off with the punchy ‘First Flight’, an unofficial tribute of sorts to Mark Turner’s Fly Trio. Hill’s bass punches out an angular almost Monk-inspired groove which provides the root for the track. Reynolds’ attentiveness to detail matches the changes perfectly and this is seen consistently throughout the album.

‘Hand Maid’ opens with a dialogue between Reynolds’ drums and Turville’s piano vamp before evolving into a whirlpool of quirky melodies and rhythmic alertness.

The title-track, evidently influenced by the UK giant John Taylor and singer Norma Winstone, features Beraha’s ghostly wordless vocals alongside solos by Turville and Hill, which make this track disturbingly beautiful. The track radiates a floating feeling similar to the swinging sections heard in ‘Waltz For Debby’ and ‘Crossfade’. Alongside ‘Hand Maid’, “Midas” ranks as an album standout, showing off the maturity with which this trio can play at such a young age.

The penultimate track, the Trio’s adaptation of Nick Drake’s ‘Fruit Tree’ is dazzling. Beraha is successful in bringing out the beauty of Drake’s writing and the musical lyricism shown by the trio is exceptional. This is a must for all Drake fans. The icing on the cake for this album is the end track which is a painfully short rendition of Duke Ellington’s ‘Solitude’ sung by Beraha, accompanied solely by Turville’s piano.

Turville duly deserves to be rated alongside his counterparts Gwilym Simcock and Kit Downes for an album that exudes originality and worthiness. This is an album that certainly should not be left to lie on a shelf collecting dust.