Alison Rayner Quintet
SEMA4
by Howard Lawes
ARQ - SEMA4, the title of the new album from Alison Rayner’s Quintet (ARQ), suggests a cryptic crossword clue. The reason behind it is little more prosaic, yet as Alison explained during a Zoom call, the background to the album is anything but. The album has nine tracks and is released on Blow the Fuse Records. The band has Alison Rayner on basses, Buster Birch on drums, Deirdre Cartwright on guitar, Diane McLoughlin on saxophone and Steve Lodder on piano. Here is a brief video introduction to the band:
ARQ has been together now for over 10 years and SEMA4 celebrates continuity in what has been a very difficult period for many. In fact, retaining the same band members and creating their unique sound is so important that Alison has been known to turn down gigs if not everyone is available.
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However, Alison’s collaborations with some members of ARQ go back a lot longer than 10 years. The year 1976 is famous for a long, hot summer and for the UK winning the Eurovision Song Contest. It was also the year that Alison and Dierdre Cartwright answered an ad in the London Women’s Liberation newsletter for women to make music together. That initiative led to the formation of a band called Jam Today and the release of the record, Stereotyping on Stroppy Cow records. Alison’s sister Fran was the sound engineer for the band. Spare Rib (January 1978) prints an interview with the band as they reached a turning point in their musical careers. Alison learned to play the banjo as a child and had joined the band as a guitarist but with no bassist Alison moved to bass guitar. Alison and Dierdre were also part of the all-women big bands Sisterhood of Spit and the Lydia D’Ustebyn Swing Orchestra, and in 1983 they started a jazz fusion collective called The Guest Stars, which although predominantly female, did include male musicians from time to time. The Guest Stars became very popular, touring the UK, the USA, Germany, Spain and the Middle East and releasing three albums before splitting up in 1989.
The Guest Stars remarkable achievements included being the first British jazz group to headline at Ronnie Scott’s new Frith Street club, and one of the very few British groups to play at the Blue Note in New York. They were influenced by Jazz, African and soul music and seamlessly combined vocals and free improvisation into their music. Hoping to build on the reputation of the Guest Stars, Deirdre and Alison formed Blow the Fuse as a vehicle “to create gigs, manage tours, release records, host jazz nights and avoid day jobs” and sought to “create a music world where women are featured as instrumentalists, band leaders and composers”. Beginning at the Duke of Wellington pub theatre on the Balls Pond Road in London, Blow the Fuse have subsequently had a long association with the ‘old’ and new Vortex jazz club and Jazz in the House at Lauderdale House.
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A compilation album of Guest Stars music was released by Blow the Fuse in 2004 and a film about the band and its music was made available in 2021.
The Deirdre Cartwright Group released their first album, Debut, on Blow the Fuse records in 1994 and their follow-up, Play in 1997. Both albums featured Alison Rayner on double bass, playing an instrument that she acquired from Louis Stephenson, who was a member of a band lead by Leslie ‘Jiver’ Hutchinson (father of singer Elaine Delmar). This splendid instrument was made in 1875, and Alison uses it to creates an exceptional sound. Her bassist heroes include Jaco Pastorius (Weather Report) and Charlie Haden who played with Ornette Coleman, Carla Bley, Keith Jarrett and Pat Metheny to name a few. These two albums also served to introduce Alison to musicians who would become part of ARQ, Steve Lodder guested on Debut and both he and Diane McGloughlin featured on Play.
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As an educator, Alison Rayner has run music and performing arts courses at City and Islington College, Rose Bruford College and Goldsmiths College. She has taught at workshops in the UK, across Europe and in Mexico and has composed for and been an examiner for Rockschool International Exam Board. Alison also taught at Ian Carr’s Weekend Arts College, taking over the junior course from the saxophonist and band-mate Louise Elliott. Along with other, like-minded organisations Blow the Fuse have encouraged and mentored young female, jazz musicians, primarily through PRS Foundation projects and a Jazz Services funded project called “Tomorrow the Moon” which paired young and older female musicians at gigs in London. However, it was at the Original Jazz Summer School where Alison met the drummer who became the fifth member of ARQ. The Barry Jazz Summer School started in 1966, and Buster Birch joined as an assistant tutor in 1998 after the course had moved to Glamorgan. Buster, who now runs the course himself remembers “I was put in Alison Rayner’s group, and I thought she was fantastic. Not only a great bass player but also such a good teacher who created a lovely atmosphere in the room for the students”.
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SEMA4 is the fourth album from ARQ following on from August (2014), A Magic Life (2016), and Short Stories (2019). The album celebrates slightly more than 10 years of albums but as detailed above, many more years of music making, collaboration, enterprise and education. In fact, so busy was Alison with all the other things in her life that she left it rather late in her career before creating ARQ. However, she did succeed in this challenge before a rather significant birthday and mindful of other bands naming themselves with initial letters, decided on ARQ.
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Previous albums have been praised for rhythmic interplay and folk-infused melodies, a strong sense of narrative and cinematic quality. They have also been described as 'songs without words'. One of Alison’s songs, There Is A Crack In Everything won her an Ivor Novello Composer Award and the band was voted best ensemble at the 2018 Parliamentary Jazz Awards.
SEMA4 is a little different from previous albums, because it was recorded live at the Vortex jazz club, and because the composition duties have been shared in a collaborative effort. The first and last tracks, both by Alison Rayner relate to very different emotions. Espiritu Libre celebrates happily escaping the lockdown restrictions with a road trip through the glorious Pyrenees mountains and the excitement of collecting a new double bass from a luthier in the Basque country. All Will Be Well, in contrast, dramatically conveys the anguish associated with the loss of a loved one despite hoping against hope that the outcome would have been different, the last few seconds of the track being especially poignant. The “title” track, Semaphore, is inspired both by the wordless communication that music generates and drummer Buster Birch mishearing an instruction to play in 7/4. The opening double bass solo is sublime while the rest of the piece is a great work-out for the band.
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Looking for a Quiet Place features a wonderful guitar solo from Deirdre Cartwright and melodius soprano saxophone from Diane McGloughlin who also composed the piece. Other compositions such as Steve Lodder’s Hamble Horror and The Handkerchief Tree ; Deirdre Cartwright’s Signals from Space and Diane McGloughlin’s Riding the Waves confirm the band's reputation for narrative and figurative soundscapes. Also very apparent is the quality of the performance and the interplay that comes from long musical relationships. Alison admits that it was never intended to record the whole album in one live session but in doing so the resulting album exemplifies the unique connections between the musicians themselves, and with the audience, which is so special.
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The album ARQ - SEMA4 is available at Bandcamp (here) and is dedicated to Alison’s younger sister, Fran (1958 – 2023).
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