The Evening Standard 04/11/2011
Jazz
NIGEL PRICEHeads & Tales(Woodville)****
Swinging and extremely skilful, guitarist Nigel Price broke through last year with a straightahead organ-trio album featuring organist Pete Whitaker and drummer Matt Home. The follow-up, a double album, aims even higher still. Tenorist Alex Garnett and percussionist Snowboy join the band, playing new themes based on well-known chord sequences, just as Parker and Gillespie did back in their 52nd Street days. That's the Heads side of the album. Disc Two is the Tales section, designed for creatively double-tracked solo guitar. Very few players could manage playing as fluent, imaginative and technically impeccable guitar as Price does here. A late starter, this album suggests he's coming up fast on the rails. JACK MASSARIk
Heads & Tales
Guitarist Nigel Price is backed by a superb band on the first part of these recordings. Drummer Matt Home constantly pushes things along and Alex Garnett (Tenor/Baritone sax) is an integral part of proceedings matching Price's virtuosity to the letter.
Opening track "It's Not Alright With Me" is pretty jaw-dropping, with all of his playing throughout vying for your attention, just when you thought you were amazed by Prices' playing, Garnett picks you up and runs away - pretty exhausting stuff at times! A cracking start Gromit! 'KB' Blues is a classic mid swing romp with the imperious tones once more of Garnett followed by a sweetly measured drum solo.An angular head if ev er there was one to keep the listener's interest high.Job done!
Wes Montgomery's "Four On Six" gets an unusual airing too in 6/8 and Hammond hero Pete Whittaker steps into the fray with a measured and mellow solo and Price himself does himself proud on this one. His classic tone and deftness really marks him out as one to watch with some beautiful chordal runs tailoring of his solo. Magical! He just makes everything sound so easy. Take a listen, and you'll soon notice that he's actually all over the fretboard without a fluff or buzz to be heard.
The standard rewrites are spot-on: Heads are tackled most enthusiastically by all on board; the ballad of "Don't Look Back" (based on You Don't Know What Love Is," is achingly lovely, taking time to unfold and reveal its depths. Again a first class solo filled with stark soulful elegance.
Some nice latin creeps into the mix Stan Getz stylee with "Stealing Time" A jaunty Bossa that sees our very own Snowboy rip it up on congas as well as playing on the next funky and extremely soulful "Gravy Train." The ghost of Grant Green makes an appearance ! You could easily be fooled into thinking this was a Blue Note release during their funky jazz period of the 60"s. Top drawer stuff and what a feel!
CD 2 sees Price accompanying himself within an all round intimate setting.Acoustic jazz guitar is the order of the day. His style sounds completely different here so yet another string to his bow is added. Consummate, articulate and extremely varied - lovers of classic jazz guitar are going to love this double album. Clear,clean and concise coupled with a towering technique. This guy's got the lot! WORDS EMRYS BAIRD
Blues and Soul - November 2011
Some might say the fine young bop guitarist Nigel Price is stuck in a 1960s time warp in which Wes Montgomery was the king of jazz guitar – but he sounds happy about it. Price's rolling swing and mix of the improv lyricism of Montgomery and Django Reinhardt are enhanced by saxophonist Alex Garnett, who delivers an authoritative tribute to the hip gravitas of sax heavyweights such as Dexter Gordon. Price's Hammond organ trio with Garnett and Latin-jazz percussionist Snowboy play the first of these two discs, breezing through a mix of jazz classics and apposite originals. Disc two (Tales) features Price on acoustic guitars, in overdubbed duets with himself on a set of standards. Garnett's superb contribution lifts the venture above the nostalgic, and for classic-jazz fans, it'll be pretty appealing.
Earlier in the evening at Joe's Bar in Summertown, a more explicitly American and straight-grooving approach had been explored by guitarist Nigel Price's trio, with Pete Whittaker on organ and Clark Tracey on drums. Classic hard-bop themes by legends such as guitarist Wes Montgomery got the treatment, but the skilful Price lovingly celebrated Montgomery's languidly bluesy lyricism and breezy swing, and the group heated up this 50 year-old style with an irresistible conviction.
John Fordham,The Guardian 2010
I first encountered Nigel when I played percussion in The James Taylor Quartet and he was on guitar. He blew me away then and he does now. For that authentic Wes Mongomery ‘Prestige’ and ‘Blue Note’ Soul Jazz style he plays it as easily as breathing. This CD features his trio live and very well recorded it is too and the band easily steam through classics, evergreens and originals. If this is your style of Jazz then you cannot be without this perfect example of the genre.
SnowboyBlues and Soul.December 2009.
Jazz Cd of the week in The Evening Standard -
JAZZ
NIGEL PRICE ORGAN TRIO
LIVE !
(Jazzizit)
****
There's a full Monty connection in the life of infantryman-turned-jazzman Nigel Price. Not Field‑Marshal Montgomery of Alamein, but Wes Montgomery of Indianapolis, America's top guitarist and Nigel's jazz hero — five of the eight themes here relate to him. Price's trio, with organ (Pete Whittaker) and drums (Matt Home), was also Wes's preferred combination. Caught in front-line action at four UK clubs, this former squaddie sounds a real killer. Hands trained to grip enemy throats shouldn't be capable of such delicate manoeuvres on guitar necks but Mr Price is full of surprises.
Jack Massarik
December 2009
The Jazz Mann
December 2009
A former soldier, guitarist Nigel Price is probably best known in musical circles for his work as a member of the long running JTQ led by organist James Taylor. Price has also played with a host of leading British names in the jazz field in settings ranging from mainstream to acid jazz and funk. He has a particular affinity for the Hammond organ trio and this unpretentious, swinging live recording features Price in his favourite musical context accompanied by organist Pete Whittaker and drummer Matt Home.
This album is the follow up to the trio’s 2005 offering “Fool’s Gold” and was recorded live during a tour of club venues in Spring 2009. The locations are the Milestones Jazz Club in Lowestoft, Dereham Jazz Society and the famous Bull’s Head in Barnes. Informative liner notes are provided by fellow guitarist Jim Mullen, a musician who also lead his own combo in the organ trio format.
Price has a particular fondness for the compositions of the late Wes Montgomery, a guitarist who frequently worked with organ trios and two of Wes’s tunes are featured here (“Jingles” and “S.O.S.”).However the programme kicks off with a tune by Wes’s brother Buddy Montgomery, “Bock To Bock”. A “minor key swinger” as Mullen describes it, this is a fine opener with Price’s lazily swinging guitar paced by Home’s metronomic drums. Whittaker colours in the spaces and also takes a fine solo himself, racing his Hammond from a whisper to a roar.
Brother Wes’s boppish classic “Jingles” fairly surges along with Price, as elsewhere playing some dazzling runs, Whittaker matches him with some fiery keyboard work and Home enjoys a series of exhilarating drum breaks.
Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “My Favourite Things” has become a regular item in the jazz canon since John Coltrane liberated it from “The Sound Of Music.” The trio’s version begins languidly with Price leisurely stating the theme above Home’s gently propulsive brush work. The piece really takes off with Whittaker’s organ solo as Home switches to sticks before Price returns with a coruscating solo above Home’s crisp drumming and Whittaker’s organ growl. At one point there’s even the clanking of bottles to remind us that this is all being recorded live in a pub, The Bull’s Head at Barnes no less.
“Angel Eyes” by Earl Brent and Matt Dennis represents the gentler side of Price’s playing with quietly elegant chord based soloing above sympathetic brush work and restrained Hammond accompaniment. Whittaker’s rhapsodic Hammond breaks away mid tune before the trio end again in ballad mode. Price’s “Mozambique” is the only original tune on the record. It’s full of clipped, funky rhythms and phrases, jazzy guitar runs and grooving Hammond. Both front line instrumentalists contribute fiery solos as Home drums up a storm behind them.
The energy levels are maintained on a breakneck version of Wes Montgomery’s “S.O.S.” with Home featuring alongside Price and Whittaker in a series of explosive drum breaks that are even more dazzling than before.
“When Sunny Gets Blue” by Jack Segal and Marvin Fisher is a lush ballad and a quicksilver version of Duke Ellington’s “cottontail” takes the album storming out. Price’s choppy chording and slippery bebop inspired lines impress on the Ellington piece with Whittaker replying in kind with some characteristically fiery Hammond as Home really rattles the tubs.
There’s nothing particularly new or surprising on on this album but then that isn’t the aim of Price and his colleagues. Quite simply they’re playing the music they love to play and, as Mullen observes, keeping the spirit of Wes Montgomery alive. Mullen also refers to the great organ combos of Jack McDuff and Jimmys Smith and McGriff.
All fans of this format will find much to enjoy here. This is unpretentious swinging fun played with skill and verve.
September 2009 Seb Scotney's Review of Eliane Elias at Ronnie Scotts had a little addendum for the support band...
The support band last night was the Nigel Price Organ Trio: Price on guitar, Pete Whittaker on Hammond and Matt Home on drums. The neatness, tidiness and tightness of this band at full tilt in numbers like SOS by Wes Montgomery and Mozambique by Nigel Price was compelling. But they can also do low-down and loose. Price does skittering flautando harmonics disappearing up the fingerboard as well as any guitarist in the UK. Whittaker can lay down a carpet of sound as accompanist, but was constantly surprising with dynamic shifts, with colour and timbre, with melodic invention, and if they can ever clone Matt Home, then sorry guys, the metronome business is finished. Anyone giving a party where you can't be sure what mood you will need the music to reflect, these are your guys. I saw some MPs in ast night's audience: this might be just the band to book for election night..... Another great night. The people I chatted to last night were from Washington DC, Cosenza in Calabria and Stockholm. Londoners, take it from me, kick yourselves: you missed something special.
Northern Echo
December 2009
Nigel Price Organ Trio/Live!(Jazzizit JITCD0953)
A former member of JTQ and the Sheena Davies Group, guitarist Nigel Price leads a trio with organist Pete Whittaker and drummer Matt Home. The varied programme was picked from various live gigs earlier this year with Montgomery Brothers tracks like Jingles, SOS,and Bock to Bock, a thoughtful Angel Eyes and a rocking Cottontail.
Peter Bevan
Arundel Jazz Club
March 9th 2009
Arundel hosted jazz guitarist Nigel Price last night. Direct from Ronnie Scott's house band, Nigel has rightly earned a reputation as one of Britain's finest players on the six strings. Many of the audience leaving at the end last night would ask if that description was too narrow - perhaps one of the finest players in the World would be more accurate. He does things that are so technically difficult and yet makes it seem all so easy, so flowing. Chords spread across 6 frets, harmonics, octaves, rake picking, fingerstyle chord melody and lightening, lightening speed all these things just appear in the course of a solo. It makes for a tremendous exciting sound. Nigel rightly praised drummer Alex Eberhard for his key contribution last night; fighting fire with fire as a nice musical exchange of ideas took place between soloist and percussionist. Terry Seabrook was outstanding yet again, obviously enjoying his first meeting with Nigel. He lifted the roof off with his solo on Killer Joe (played in tribute to drummer Louis Borenius who sadly died last month). Steve was driving it all along with some lovely solid down the line, no nonsense walking. "Back to Back" featured the bass player taking the first solo and drawing the audiences appreciation with some fine bluesy, bop phrases. Nigel finished the evening off with Tenor Madness delivered at a blistering pace.The audience were swept along by the sheer musical force, as the notes seemed to pop out from his guitar like so many bullets fired from a gun. If you haven't seen this groovy jazz gunslinger play yet then make amends immediately, he's a legend in the making.
Griff Prescott.
“Nigel is an excellent jazz guitarist often found playing with rising stars, but here he has released an album by his own trio featuring the striking organ of Pete Whittaker and impressive sticks and brushes work of Matt Home. Joined by the tenor sax of Andy Ross on two cuts the group’s been captured here in crystal clear clarity by the production team of The Easy Access Orchestra.
Brisk opener Booze Blooze, written by Nigel, gives each player the opportunity to show us their chops in turn and introduces their artistry and ability. The mellow title track, however, presents Nigel’s inventive single string playing and the subsequent take on Wes Montgomery’s Blues Riff also allows Pete room to blend a little Jack McDuff-style chord material into the mix.”
Musician – Winter 2005
Humphrey Lyttleton on Radio 2. April 2005
Name the guitarist who sails with fluency and confidence through this opening track. I’ll give you one of my cryptic crossword clues but without high expectations that it will help. The clue is “Mr Forsyth says it’s right”. Make what you can of that while you listen to “Booze Blooze”.
-plays track-
Well, stretch across and give yourself a modest pat on the back if you guessed that is “Mr Forsyth says it’s right” is the price. Of course I need more than that so I’ll tell you that the guitarist there was Surrey born Nigel Price whose cv like so many young musicians today lists funk, fusion and acid jazz among the idioms he’s mastered.
I’m glad to see that of the groups he leads himself his preference is for the guitar, organ and drums line up which you’ve just heard. Glad because in that format alone he stands out as a really class performer. On organ there was Pete Whittaker, on drums Matt Home.
Nigel Price’s album “Fool’s Gold is on Fret Records. I see he’s appearing at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival next Friday, April 28th and if you live within reach of The Duke’s Head ,Dorking Road, Tadworth you can even pop in and hear him there on Thursdays.
With music as good as that so readily available once you know where to find it this self-deprecating country is not such a bad place to live in eh?
“If it wasn’t good I wouldn’t have played it!”
Campbell Burnapp – 2005