01/05/2001 Mojo , chris ingram

Excellent fifth album by the artful British jazzers.
One of the things that makes this brainiest of contemporary jazz groups so special is that they have always been able to balance their genre-hopping plethora of ingenuity with a palpable beauty. Here, they return to the virtuosic quartet of Head Boys that formed in '92 - Mark Lockheart (saxes), Huw Warren (piano, accordion), Dudley Phillips (bass), Martin France (drums) - for a series of Eastern Arts-commissioned pieces inspired by East Anglia. Smart composers all, you won't find any of these 'new folk songs' reworked on singers' night but there's much here that's moving, in addition to being impressive. Warren particularly has an alluring melancholy streak in his writing, as witnessed by the lovely Old Song New Song, an adaptation of the ancient Brigg Fair, and Dunwich & The Sea, a haunting portrait of the Suffolk town crumbling over eroding cliffs. This band are perilously close to becoming a national treasure.

Chris Ingham

02/04/2001 Peter Quinn, JAZZWISE ****

"The fact that New Folk Songs was directly inspired by the folk music and landscape of East Anglia may set pulses racing for all the wrong reasons (evoking as it does the stereotypically nightmarish vision of unkempt beards, jesus sandals and horrid sweaters). Let me immediately assuage any doubts: this is a remarkable album, constantly surprising and brilliantly coloured, with some acutely sensitive interplay". * * * *.