Simon Lasky is a musician, arranger, composer and teacher. Story Inside is his debut release on 33Jazz records.   

Track 1 Prologue: Song for Istara is a piano-led motif based around a repeated easy, lilting riff with a guitar solo and a gentle development. Track 2 Let Me In is lively with accentuated, Latin overtones using the entire group. Again, the repeated riff gives a structure and the sound ebbs and flows, using the guitar to expand the middle section leading to a flugelhorn solo which demonstrates the versatility of the instrument. Right the way through there is a strong Latin feel.

Track 3 Coming Home begins with a gentle three-way discussion between bass, flugelhorn and keys, backed by percussive rhythm then a change of tempo and emphasis where the band take the floating melody of the flugelhorn and support the expanded theme. The piano of Simon Lasky provides a solo in the middle part before the flugelhorn once again provides a definitive melody over the top of the band. Track 4 is Morning Bright and this is a textured piece, full of depths and layers with each instrument adding their own essence. It features a great discussive section between the piano, percussion and then several instruments entering the discourse in a fugue-like structure before the flugelhorn and drums strike up a short interlude which is developed as the whole band enter again.  

Track 5 is the title track, Story Inside, and is gentle, well-structured and uses all of the band, emphasis on the guitars and flugelhorn. Track 6 is Two Worlds and starts with a driving rhythm, over which the piano enters, emphasising key chords but not stealing the muse, which is developed as this track progresses, until around the 2.40 mark when it develops into a flugelhorn led theme - the other world! - before returning to the theme which overrides the piece. Ra’s Angels and Demons entered my head briefly at one point listening to this. Track 7 is Oregon Trail is a swingy, easy on the ears number with emphasis on piano and fugelhorn, underpinned by support from the rest of the band and track 8 is, In This Love which is a soulful, emotive piece, framed around a theme which is taken by the flugelhorn and this is followed by Epilogue: Please Turn Up The Quiet which is another piano-led piece to close the album. 

Right the way through there is a sense of a learning curve being taken by the musicians, an almost tentative exploration of semi-improvisation based around strong classical-based structure and a sense of patterned composition. There is a comfort in the repetition and return to repeated motifs, which are a distinctive part of Lasky’s compositions. The music is gentle, structured and demonstrates a well-schooled compositional direction and it is great to hear the flugelhorn used extensively. Lasky’s piano provides both lead and support. There is a reminder of old-school compositional fields such as some of the swing bands and also references to 60s popular jazz styles  and maybe Metheny’s influence is there as well but overall, there is something intangible about this CD – and the various influences, although felt throughout are disassembled and reconstructed in an individual style which Lasky is developing. Lasky has a classical grounding and it shows but he also understands jazz and in many ways, there is a freshness to this music which is lacking in many contemporaries. 

Colour is used here in the true sense of jazz music with the instruments each adding different layers when they are not soloing, demonstrating Lasky’s compositions show not only a rooting in classical structure but also an understanding of old school jazz style.  He knows just how to use his musicians and their instruments to add the right amount of texture.  There is a slight sense of retention, like a reined wild horse and at times it is as if we are getting a glimpse of future possibilities. Story Inside is, hopefully the start of a series of tales as yet untold.

Personnel: Simon Lasky Piano, Shanti Paul Jayasinha, flugelhorn, Luca Boscagin, electric and acoustic guitars, Pete Billington, electric and fretless basses, Satin Singh, tabla and percussion, Jeff Lardner, drums. 

Review: Sammy Stein