Alice in Grooveland is a UK-based jazz funk quartet, led by keyboard player and composer, Andrew Myers. The band has been in existence for a few years, but the current line-up came together a year ago. Myers is joined by Lithuanian saxophonist Linas Benas, who plays a 1952 Selmer alto saxophone, and helps to give the give the band its distinctive sound. The rhythm section consists of Indian six-string bass player Leslee Booth, who has played with the likes of Billy Eckstein and Gloria Gaynor, and drummer Nick Bradshaw, a veteran of the London jazz scene.
The band’s sound is rooted in the Blue Note soul-jazz of the 1960s, with catchy, original melodies, combining with a powerful groove to good effect. There are also elements of jazz-fusion. Fusion can be a dirty word, but as the band’s name suggests, they favour the groove-driven sound of early 1970s Herbie Hancock over the more experimental sound of Miles Davis from that era.
Skyline, the band’s debut CD, was recorded in October 2014, after a successful appearance at the Rye International Jazz Festival that summer, and was released in December 2014. The album consists of five original compositions, all of which were originally written by Myers, but gradually evolved through regular live performances. The album opens with Doing Time, with Myers playing a simple but effective hook on keyboard, before being joined by Benas on saxophone, who goes on to take the first solo. Tobias Is Back is rather more ambitious, opening with an infectious piano groove which soon gives way to a catchy melody, played by Benas, before Myers takes an lengthy, impressive solo.
The Cat Is Crucial is one of the album’s standouts, and was apparently named in honour of Myers’ pet cat, which is now sadly hard of hearing, and unable to hear the track in its full glory. Myers plays the introduction on organ here, before the rhythm section comes in a lay down another solid groove. The tune has a more of a warm, soulful vibe, and would not sound out of place on any of those classic Blue Note albums from the early-mid 1960s.
Myers stays with organ for MOT, which has more of an acid jazz feel to it, the warm sound of the keyboard underpinning a strong solo by Benas. The title track is the final tune on the album, and opens with a lengthy improvisation by Leslee Booth, whose six-string bass also helps to differentiate the band’s sound. Bradshaw and Myers come in at the two-minute mark, as the tune gradually build and evolves, allowing plenty of space for space for the band to improvise.
The band’s biggest strengths are their original compositions, which hold their own with some of the jazz classics that sprinkle their live performances, and the interplay between the four musicians, who have built up a good chemistry over the last year. If there is a weakness to Skyline, it is that the production is a little dry, and fails to adequately capture the dynamism of the band’s live performance. Alice In Grooveland is a regular fixture in and around London, and is well worth seeing in a live setting. They will also return to the Rye International Jazz Festival in late August, where they will play alongside Kind of Jazz favourites such as Go Go Penguin, Avery Sunshine and Theo Jackson.
