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CHRIS ALLARD BAND
Chris Allard: Electric and Acoustic Guitars
Brandon Allen: Saxophone
Ross Stanley: Piano and Keyboards
Oli Hayhurst: Bass
Nick Smalley: Drums/Percussion
“Energetic guitar-led modern jazz originals from fine player Allard, whos worked with Jacqui Dankworth, Gwyneth Herbert and is joined by Aussie sax firebrand Allen plus a great rhythm section. Expect Radiohead-style flourishes and Metheny-ish melodies wrapped in a hip approach to modern jazz.”
Time Out
Drawing on various influences from Brad Mehldau, Pat Metheny, Miles Davis and Kurt Rosenwinkel to Radiohead, Jimi Hendrix, blues and folk influences, the band play original music with improvising, interplay, groove, swing and energy.
The band has existed since 2004 and have played at many great venues, such as Pizza Express Jazz Club Soho, The Stables and The Vortex Jazz Club. They have had radio airplay and press as far afield as Portugal and California.
Debut album Open Spaces was recently released on independent Edinburgh-based label Audacious Records. It features nine original new original compositions, including “Time is No Fool”, a collaboration with great singer Jacqui Dankworth, who guests on the album.
Press for Open Spaces Album, unabridged:
Guitarist Chris Allard who references, amongst others, Pat Metheny, Radiohead, Miles Davis and Kurt Rosenwinkel...his tone is varied from warm jazz (pleasingly thick neck humbucker phrases on Lava) to rocking with bluesy angular lines (Lizards has a solo somewhere between Scofield and Carlton with a dash of fleet footing Martino). Later, he demonstrates gorgeous nylon-string polyphony as Jacqui Dankworth sings (Time is no Fool). And then theres his evocative acoustic work (Arequipa)...Open Spaces demonstrates enough compositional and stulistic colour from his five man band to suggest bebop is far from being Allard’s only (jazz) brush. Guitarist Magazine (4 Stars)
Jazz, Rock, Funk and Folk
Chris Allard is a regular on TV, radio and the international jazz festival circuit. His original jazz is approachable and witty, especially in the company of his band, featuring
Brandon Allen (sax), Ross Stanley (keys) Oli Hayhurst (double bass) and Nick Smalley (drums). Open Spaces and Insurgence demonstrate the group’s dexterity while maintaining a balance between tension and release as spiralling highs give way to relaxed improvisations. Top drawer.
The Musician, Spring 2010 Reviews
“Guitarist Allard is a regular accompanist for Jacqui Dankworth and sometime Gwyneth Herbert band-member, has worked with Dave O’Higgins and Tom Richards as well as appearing on a fair number of pop-rock sessions. This is an assertive debut.
Allard dodges any jazz-bluesy rock clichés on his electric solo with a bold, rounded sound and patiently-shaped sense of melodic direction. There are nice contrasts here too: Allard’s chiming acoustic guitar accompaniment’s alongside Allen’s Garbarek-like sax persuasively add an air of evocative calm, as does the excellent Jacqui Dankworth singing her folk-song lyric on ‘Time is no Fool’. But the swarthy Blue Train-influenced Allen and pianist Ross Stanley’s full-blooded solos are also right on the money.”
Jazzwise Magazine February 2010 Issue 138
Follow this link to buy the album:
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