Gareth Lockrane Big Band: 'Box of Tricks'

The new album from guru of the flute Gareth Lockrane and his Big Band is spectacular, featuring some of the (other) best jazz musicians the UK has to offer. ‘Box of Tricks’ is just that - a selection of some masterful writing and performing.

The opening track features Lockrane’s exemplary flute - he plays flute, alto flute, bass flute and piccolo across the tracks - and All the People really does show his playing at its finest. There’s a reason why he’s the go-to flautist in the UK and beyond. With Box of Tricks, he’s showing off his composition and arrangement skills too.

Don’t be fooled into thinking you’ve heard big bands - this album showcases these extraordinary musicians as a collection and as individuals. Lockrane sets the improvisation standard, but others follow. On the opening track, Mark Nightingale (trombone) and Ross Stanley (Hammond organ) take the leader’s baton and blast with their own individual style.

Many of the players (like Ross Stanley, who has appeared on several albums I’ve reviewed this year, as well as live gigs and even on an episode of Harmonious World in 2022) are regulars across the UK jazz scene and they come together brilliantly under Lockrane’s baton. Formed in 2008, The Gareth Lockrane Big Band has been a purveyor of quality ever since, as seen on their 2017 debut album Fistfight At The Barn Dance. It’s hard to believe, but the nine tracks in their Box Of Tricks were recorded in just one day in Livingston Studio.

Across all these tracks, there is an attention to detail but lightness of touch in Lockrane’s composing and arrangement that means the big band format is still very much alive and well in the UK today.

It’s always hard to choose a favourite track from any album, but for this one, I’d probably go for the final tune - Lockup!. At least partly, it’s a winner, because Lockrane’s flute is simply gorgeous, especially rising above the soli sections. His own solo weaves between the section backgrounds just perfectly. The final flourish completes Box of Tricks.

Gareth says: “I love writing for an ambitious project like this that’s big enough to combine all my favorite influences, and I never get over the thrill of a big band roaring away with the unique voices of the soloists shaping the music - it never gets old.”

“A lot of the tunes or germs of the tunes come out of a playing/practice process for me, consolidating ideas or soaking up influences that leads naturally to writing and personalizing all the ideas that I’m working on as a player. And the players are a multi-generational mix of my own peer group, older musicians I’ve always admired and people I’ve taught at the colleges over the last 15 years - incredible talents who are now taking their place on the scene. I’m really happy with how this record turned out.”

You can find a full list of the tracks and personnel on the Bandcamp page for Box of Tricks.