Chiminyo, aka Tim Doyle, curates the Late Late Electronic show at Ronnie Scott’s [Fabrice Bourgelle]

“BUT is it jazz?” It’s a question that drummer/percussionist/producer Chiminyo (aka Tim Doyle) is either asked or muses himself from the stage at every gig he does at Ronnie Scott’s. Tim is the curator of the club’s Late Late Electronic show, which runs once a month on Fridays, a slot that explores the fertile ground between jazz and electronica with Tim’s project known as NRG.

So, is it jazz? Well, Tim certainly has the pedigree to claim jazz bones. Born in the New Forest, now based in north London, he started his musical education as part of the crew jamming and finding their voice at the now legendary Steez in Deptford and the Royal Albert pub in New Cross in the early/mid-2010s.

The groundbreaking cast fusing jazz with grime, dubstep and broken beat included the likes of Nubya Garcia, Kamaal Williams, tuba king Theon Cross and Ezra’s Joe Armon-Jones. Since then, Tim has played with Shabaka, Gary Bartz, Nubya and Jake Long’s Maisha.

But Tim thinks “jazz” is too restrictive a term to encompass all what has been achieved in the past decade by the above and subsequent musicians.

“I think the scene in London has developed a very unique language which to me is not so much about ‘jazz’ and is more about the energy we share, which comes from a wide array of influences in this city,”he says. “Hence the name NRG. So, its wider than jazz and is very ‘London’.”

In fact, Tim says that, at heart, he is a raver, who loves club culture.

Yet the jazz will not be denied, especially when players such as bassist Daniel Casimir and Levitation Orchestra’s Jake Akers on sax are part of the fluid line up. One thing that differentiates this music from the jazz tradition is that it doesn’t swing. “I haven’t played swing since I was, like, 20,” he says.

Chiminyo [Karolina Wielocha]

In the best tradition of free jazz, though, everything is improvised on stage.

“We do a one-day workshop so everyone can understand how it is going to work on the night and then build up the music live on stage, almost like producers in a studio. Live, I have electronic percussion triggered from my drums and a controller next to me that lets me control the pitches of these samples and some delays, reverb and filters, so I can control the electronic drum layers spontaneously. This is a pretty unique technique, not one I have heard people explore in the live/improvised music space, which is exciting.”

Not everyone appreciates the NRG methodology. “We’ve had people come and sit in and do a five minute solo. That’s not what we are about.”

In fact, his philosophy is closer to the old Weather Report maxim – “Nobody Solos. Everybody solos” – although NRG cleave closer to a no noodling policy than Shorter and Zawinul ever did.

One man who did “get it” recently was superstar rapper/actor Common, who took the stage for 10 minutes of top quality freestyling. “It was the musical highlight of my life,” says Tim, smiling and shaking his head at the memory, as if he still can’t quite believe it was real.

So, is it jazz? Judge for yourself on the new album NRG 4: Live at Ronnie Scott’s. My son produces pretty hardcore drum and bass under the name DJ Sazlar (@_sazlar); I listen to labels like Blue Note, International Anthem, Impulse! and Gearbox, but am not averse to Floating Points and Bonobo (both of whom Tim cites as inspiration). Like a musical Venn diagram, NRG hits the sweet spot for both myself and Sazlar. “Jazz adjacent dance music” might be the more apt description of what Tim and his ever-changing line-up of cohorts conjure up.

The record includes the always lyrical bass of Casimir opening up the proceedings on Luminescence, Akers blowing a horn-driven tempest on Into The Storm, vocalist BAELY showcasing the band’s tender side on Nightfall and Cuban alto saxophone virtuoso Regis Molina bringing his fire to album closer Levitate.

Elsewhere Brownswood signing Marysia Osu adds celestial harp and effects, Lyle Barton plays keys/synths and Tilé Gichigi-Liperé manipulates the sound in real time with live electronics. Who cares what the genre is? I like it a lot.

• You can buy the album on Bandcamp (https://chiminyo.bandcamp.com/album/nrg-4-live-at-ronnie-scotts) and experience Chiminyo’s NRG in the flesh at Ronnie Scott’s on May 30 and on other Fridays though till November.
Doors open at 11.15am, music is midnight-2am, club closes at 3pm. Not bad for £15.50.
Don’t worry if it says “Sold out” on the website – if you are prepared to pitch up early and queue, there are always tickets on the door.
• See: https://www.ronniescotts.co.uk/find-a-show/late-late-electronic-chiminyo

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Georgia Mancio [Tatiana Gorilovsky]

IN contrast I have also been listening to a trio of albums featuring female jazz singers.

First up is Georgia Mancio and Alan Broadbent’s A Story left Untold. Mancio has (amazingly) clocked up 25 years in the jazz business, running festivals, clubs, teaching masterclasses and, of course, singing in a wide variety of settings. The elegant pianist Broadbent is probably best known as a member of the late Charlie Haden’s Quartet West.

Story is their third collaboration and is, like its predecessors, a lovely, considered piece of work, shot through with emotion, a strong social conscience and a clear-eyed awareness of the inequalities and dangers of the current political landscape. The pair played with their band – Andy Cleyndert on bass, who also produced the album, Dave Ohm, also Georgia’s partner, on drums – at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival recently and several hard-headed jazzers in the audience were moved to tears by the sheer beauty of it all.

The album is a triumph, with fascinating tracks such as The Love I Left Behind, an affecting ballad for the duo, sung in English and Italian (her second language) and tunes taken at a fair old lick like The Same Old Moon, culminating in the ambitious, elegiac orchestral title track.

• A Story Left Untold is available on CD, LP and digitally. Buy it here: https://georgiamancio.bandcamp.com/album/a-story-left-untold and check Georgia’s gig dates on https://www.georgiamancio.com/events/

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Georgia and Alan’s songs often sound like mislaid entries in the Great American Songbook and that’s something that could also be said about the song writing of Canadian-born, London-based singer/saxophonist Sandra-Mae Lux on her sophomore album Seasons in Jazz. Even the titles sound suitably vintage: When Autumn Calls (a highlight), Love Me Tonight (with a beautifully phrased era-appropriate tenor solo from the singer and, It’s Only Spring.

She is a versatile performer who is happy with soul and grooves, but here really does demonstrate her understanding of and love for the traditional jazz idiom, although as with Georgia, the tunes are all originals, written by Sandra-Mae and Alan Marriott.

Her voice is by turns pellucid, sensuous, sultry and soulful and she certainly knows how to swing. You can catch the album launch at the 606 Club over on Lots Road on May 29, with top backing from the album’s band – Sebastian de Krum behind the drums, Rob Barron at the piano and Calum Gourlay on bass.

• See https://www.606club.co.uk/events/view/sandra-mae-lux-album-launch/
Buy the record there or here: https://sandramaelux.bandcamp.com/

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FINALLY, something that doesn’t have obvious links to the Great American Songbook, but where the singer takes her jazz chops for a sail in waters once occupied by Joni Mitchell and Laura Nyro.
Fini Bearman is not only a singer-songwriter but also Professor of Songwriting at the Guildhall, so as you would expect her album Last Night of The World features 10 very well-crafted tunes, with memorable melodies and artfully multi-layered vocals.

Lyrics are introspective, plaintive, sometimes bleak (look at that album title – but hey, you rarely went to jazzy Joni for laughs), but the music is mostly uplifting and infectious and is immaculately played by a cast of stellar guests, including George Cowley on sax, Gareth Lockrane on flute, Alice Zawadzki on violin, Al Cherry and Matt Calvert on guitars and Gwilym Simcock on piano.

They join Fini’s core group of Tom Cawley (piano and synths), Robin Mullarkey (bass and production duties) and James Maddren (drums). A fine band for a fine, imaginative record.

• See: https://finibearmanband.bandcamp.com/