Headlong
In 2004, Headlong was the final release on Innovative Scottish label, Caber Music featured Phil leading an all-star line-up comprising Reid Anderson on bass (US- The Bad Plus), Mike Walker on guitar (England- The Impossible Gentleman) and Thomas Strønen on drums (Norway- Time Is A Blind Guide). This album received a full release, with a batch of glowing reviews across the board. Unfortunately, Caber Music folded a couple of months after Headlong’s release, and so as an album, on its first release Headlong didn’t have the chance to make the impact it possibly deserved. Now maybe its time has come.
Its re-release on May 31 2024 makes it the second album sent out into the cosmos from Myriad Streams, 20 years after the original, and joyfully the music has received multiple radio plays around the world, and a clutch of lovely reviews. It is wonderful that the response suggests the music has stood the test of time.
"Captures Bancroft’s joy in the sounds that the saxophone can make and his instincts for tunes that merge the contemporary phrasings of jazz with the melodies of traditional music (|which) always make his recordings exciting and rewarding experiences." JazzViews
“As good as anything coming out of New York...”
Brian Morton Penguin Guide To Jazz Recordings
"Jazz has an international lineage of elegiac storytellers (Shorter-Ornette-Jarrett-Garbarek-Frisell-Endresen) and Bancroft makes a suitable addition to these voices, balancing restraint and propulsion with consummate ease. With its brooding grace and rigorous distillation, it marks Phil Bancroft out as a player and composer to be ignored at your peril."
Kevin Le Gendre Echoes Magazine
| Buy Comment Share | |||
| Golden Section | 07:36 | × This composition uses the Fibonnacci series- 1,1,2,3,5,8 etc, hence it's title. Used by composers such as Bartok, Stravinsky and Steve Coleman, the adjacent numbers produce ratios that gradually approach phi or φ, The Golden Section, (1.618...). In musical improvisation and composition the ratios can be applied to intervallic or rhythmic sub-units- eg 3 then 2 semitones, or 3 then 5 quavers to create structures with a distinct character. In Phil's words 'In this composition I was exploring these ratios to create intervallic leaps, giving the melody a hint of chromaticism.' An examination of Celtic melody within contemporary Jazz spaces, it's graced by the fierce rhythmic focus of Thomas Strønen's drumming delivered on lightweight sticks, the heavy beats and sound of Reid Anderson's spacious bass, and Mike Walker's intensity of character and line. From the album 'Headlong' released in 2014 on Caber Music, and soon to be re-released on Myriad Streams. Contributors: Composer/Saxophone: Phil Bancroft; Guitar: Mike Walker; Acoustic Bass: Reid Anderson; Drum Kit: Thomas Strønen; | |
| Goes Around Comes Around | 06:27 | × Contributors: Phil Bancroft; Acoustic Bass: Reid Anderson; Drum Kit: Thomas Strønen; | |
| Samson Sam Song #1 | 05:15 | × Contributors: Acoustic Bass: Reid Anderson; Drum Kit: Thomas Strønen; Tenor Saxophone: Phil Bancroft; Composer: Phil Bancroft; Guitar: Mike Walker; | |
| Boip Avoiding | 03:59 | × Contributors: Guitar: Mike Walker; Bandleader: Phil Bancroft; Composer: Phil Bancroft; Tenor Saxophone: Phil Bancroft; Acoustic Bass: Reid Anderson; Drum Kit: Thomas Strønen; | |
| Double Trouble | 05:30 | × Contributors: Guitar: Mike Walker; Bandleader: Phil Bancroft; Composer: Phil Bancroft; Tenor Saxophone: Phil Bancroft; Acoustic Bass: Reid Anderson; Drum Kit: Thomas Strønen; | |
| Headlong | 05:57 | × Contributors: Guitar: Mike Walker; Bandleader: Phil Bancroft; Composer: Phil Bancroft; Tenor Saxophone: Phil Bancroft; Acoustic Bass: Reid Anderson; Drum Kit: Thomas Strønen; | |
| Red Cow Flying | 04:56 | × By Phil Bancroft's International Quartet, from the album 'Headlong'. Contributors: Band: International Quartet; Bandleader: Phil Bancroft; Composer: Phil Bancroft; Tenor Saxophone: Phil Bancroft; Acoustic Bass: Reid Anderson; Guitar: Mike Walker; Drum Kit: Thomas Strønen; | |
| Groove | 06:46 | × Contributors: Acoustic Bass: Reid Anderson; Drum Kit: Thomas Strønen; Tenor Saxophone: Phil Bancroft; Composer: Phil Bancroft; Guitar: Mike Walker; | |
| Samson Sam Song #2 | 07:23 | × Contributors: Drum Kit: Thomas Strønen; Guitar: Mike Walker; Tenor Saxophone: Phil Bancroft; Composer: Phil Bancroft; Acoustic Bass: Reid Anderson; | |