WHAT do you get if you take a multi-talented composer, saxophonist, pianist. and priest, combine him with a band of serious players (in both senses of that word) in UK jazz, and give them all the book of Psalms to riff on? The answer is Psalter: Themes of peace, the new album by the Revd Tim Boniface, who combines his post as Chaplain of Girton College, Cambridge — where this album was recorded, pretty much all in one take — with his passion for composing, teaching, and performing mainstream jazz.
Six psalmic texts on peace provide this album with plenty of diverse material to be getting on with. The listener is initially treated to a burst of joy in The blessing of peace, the sax introducing itself by tripping lightly over the hi-hat. A brief departure allows the piano to shine, before the horn returns, this time carrying its jaunty theme into a slightly darker world, and thus setting the scene for what we are yet to hear.
Boniface explains: “The aim of Psalter is . . . to get beyond simplistic notions of peace and explore its multiple social, political and spiritual dimensions.” Whether it is possible for 45 minutes of music to do justice to such lofty ambitions may rest within the ear of the individual, but, certainly the breadth of themes provides each instrumentalist their own space for reflection.
In peace I will lie down and sleep combines predictable, delightfully breathy moments with the unexpected: a moving bass solo, while Do not hold your peace at my tears gives the sax a chance to mourn and spit in the way only it can, before a frustrated rhythm is introduced that bounces around the band with an impetuous furiosity. The piece finds resolution of a kind in a final, slightly ambiguous, open C chord: perhaps an opportunity for glimmers of hope, despite the pain.
The sheer awkwardness expressed in the double-dealing 5/4 time of Peace on their lips, malice in their hearts contrasts well with the stirring, hymnic quality of the final Seek peace and pursue it. Yet, the star of the show is buried in the middle of the album: Righteousness and peace have kissed each other has sax and piano engaged in a complex courting ritual that reminds one of teenagers at a school dance. Drums and bass stand at the side of the hall, waiting for their time to come — but, despite a brief moment when the spotlight turns on them, this is largely a two-piece romance. And, as the lights come on at the end of the night, we are witness to the final passionate embrace. Have righteousness and peace kissed each other? Indeed, they have.
Boniface’s additional role as founding artistic director of Girton Jazz — a programme of public concerts combined with workshops for students — has introduced a somewhat unique offering to Cambridge life. And its propensity to attract big names has, no doubt, also helped to swell this album’s address book somewhat, with James Pearson, Artistic Director of the Soho jazz club Ronnie Scott’s on piano, Malcolm Creese on bass, and Jon Ormston on drums and percussion, all joining the protean priest to produce a recording of undoubted cerebral and musical quality, which, in the composer’s own words, “embraces the fluidity and mystery of how music and meaning are related”.
Psalter: Themes for Peace is released on Audio-B (CD SKU: ABCD5033). www.audio-b.com
The Revd James Gilder is Rector of Wanstead and Area Dean of Redbridge, in London.