“Playing with QOW Trio has reinvigorated my playing and musical career,” says veteran drummer Spike Wells. The multi-generational group’s second album, ’The Hold Up’ is released on Ubuntu Music on 26 January, followed by a series of live dates. Interviews/ feature by Phil Johnson. 

Sometimes when you listen to jazz on record all you want to hear is, well, jazz. Forget the high concept or crossover this and that. We’re talking spirited improvisation and exciting interplay on great tunes, with the music bouncing out of the speakers to make you feel as if you are actually there at the moment of creation. Think Sonny Rollins’ ‘Live at the Village Vanguard’ LPs, soon to get a re-release as part of Blue Note’s 85th anniversary. Or closer to home but in no way a copy, new album ’The Hold Up’ by the estimable QOW Trio (it’s pronounced “Cow”) of tenor saxophonist Riley Stone-Lonergan, double bassist Eddie Myer and drummer extraordinaire Spike Wells.

’The Hold Up’ is a veritable ram raid of in-your-face jazz, with tough tenor Stone-Lonergan absolutely tearing his way through a perfectly chosen and delivered collection of tunes. Four of his original compositions are joined by very inventive versions of Monk’s ‘Bright Mississippi’, Ellington and Strayhorn’s ’The Starcrossed Lovers’, Big John Patton’s ‘Along Came John’ and Lee Morgan’s ‘Our Man Higgins’, plus Lonergan’s Ayler-esque arrangement of a Stephen Foster tune. Recorded at London’s Fish Factory in 2023 following a run of dates in Ireland, it sounds as live and direct as you could wish for, with Wells’ swinging ride cymbal ringing like a bell.

“The band set up together, with no headphones or separation, allowing the music to breathe organically and the interplay to develop in real time”, says Eddie Myer of the recording session. It’s the Brighton-based band’s second release following a self-titled debut in 2020. “We feel we have progressed in cohesion and been able to tackle music in an even wider range of styles. Riley’s original compositions have made a huge contribution”, says Spike Wells. “Playing with QOW Trio is unique because we all have such different taste and approaches in the music but share a similar mantra when it comes to actually making it”, adds Riley Stone-Lonergan. “Eddie and Spike have open ears and open hearts and it’s a joy to play with them every night.”

The story of the band is every bit as interesting as their album. The three members represent three different jazz generations, the sum of their collective talents greater than the already impressive parts. As you might have realised by now, Michael ‘Spike’ Wells – who will be 78 next week – is an authentic legend. He was 22 when Tubby Hayes chose him as his drummer, and he played with him until his death in 1973. Later, he was part of the Ronnie Scott’s house band and backed Stan Getz and Roland Kirk, among many others. Although he continued to play music, Wells also became a solicitor and later an Anglican deacon and priest.

“Playing with Spike takes you right up close to the wellspring of modern jazz”, says Myer. “Someone who saw Monk and Blakey as a boy, studied with Philly Joe Jones as a young man, and developed his art by playing in the company of the legends of the music from Tubby Hayes to Kenny Wheeler to Bobby Wellins. His playing is so free and fearless, telepathically responsive, completely musical, and he’s the embodiment of swing. He really owns the space but is never afraid to push past the boundaries.”

Myer, whose double bass role is crucial in holding down the free and fiery contributions of Stone-Lonergan and Wells, yet who swings as hard as Charlie Haden with Ornette Coleman, is a well-known figure on the Brighton scene. As well as playing with his own quintet, and the band Turin Brakes, he runs the organisation New Generation Jazz, helping young jazz musicians develop their careers. Riley Stone-Lonergan, who is by some distance the youngest of the trio, began playing professionally in Ireland at sixteen. Arriving in the UK to study at Leeds College of Music, he was the star student of his year, winning several prizes and becoming a Yamaha Jazz Scholar. Now, as well as QOW Trio, he plays with the free-jazz project Family Band, and co-leads the Tarel-Lonergan Quartet with French pianist Fabrice Tarel.

“It’s a unique combination of players in the free-est of formats” says Myer. “And Riley is a complete musician, a master technician on his instrument who never lets technique interfere with sincerity or soul or self expression. He’s got the history of jazz at his fingertips but everything he plays sounds completely fresh and honest.” Stone-Lonergan is also an extremely sensitive player who can be tender as well as tough, His arrangement of Stephen Foster’s ‘Hard Times Come Again No More’, which closes the album, is as beautiful, and as delicate, a performance as you are likely to hear all year.

But the last word should go to Spike Wells. “Playing with QOW Trio has reinvigorated my playing and musical career in my late seventies”, he says. “It is a very happy accident that the trio comprises people from three generations. It is a freer and more creative experience than I’ve had for a long time. Riley and Eddie have made an old man very happy. Or, as Ronnie Scott used to say, “You’ve made a happy man very old.”

TOUR DATES

3/2/24 – Brighton, The Verdict
5/2/24 – Stroud, The Prince Albert
6/2/24 – Leeds, Sela Bar
7/2/24 – Sheffield, The Lescar
8/2/23 – Leicester Jazz
9/2/23 – London, The Vortex (album launch)
12/2/23 – Cheltenham Jazz
14/4/24 – Dublin, Five Lamps Festival
3/5/24 – Derry Jazz Festival

LINK: The Hold-Up is on Ubuntu Music – release date 26 January

from https://londonjazznews.com