Flourish
Ball | Hanlon | Schulz
2025
I first heard this new album from trumpeter Eugene Ball whilst I was in Paris. That is not a boast about my travels but rather a reflection of this music, albeit with a very significant rider. This is simply due to the second instrument that appears here, the piano accordion of Anthony Schulz, which comes in after Ball’s introduction on the first track “Fred la Marmotte” sounding like one of the Paris street musicians I had heard, but to be fair, rather better!
As can be gleaned from the opening comments, this is not an ordinary jazz album, just the aforementioned and bassist Ben Hanlon, no percussion. Chamber jazz, to be sure.
I referred to a rider and that comes in with the presence of Arnold Zable and his spoken word tale of his time in China over 40 years ago on the track “Prelude”. It is a beautiful, thoughtful story and no matter how many times I have heard it, I am still drawn to it, with its discovery of peace and contentment in rural China. “Watermill” is the next track, which follows the theme as the waterwheel which is central to Zable’s tale, with its bassline reflecting the relentless “thud” of the rotating wheel.
In some ways these two tracks take away from the beauty of the remaining tracks, such is their power. But that would belittle the beguiling music that lies here. There is nothing raucous or loud, it is peaceful and beautiful music that captivates the listener.
Without the brilliant contribution from Schultz and Hanlon, whose bowed bass on some tracks is just sublime, this would not be the success that it is.