While labels like Jazzman are digging deep to create Spiritual Jazz compilations recorded in the 1960s and ‘70s, there’s a new generation of musicians continuing the story started by titans like John Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders. A few names come to mind immediately: Kamasi Washington in Los Angeles, Nat Birchall in Manchester, and, in London, the four-piece Ill Considered.
The group released their self-titled debut in September of last year, and followed with a live album, recorded at the Crypt of St. Giles Church in South London. Born in the same Hoxa HQ Studio in Hampstead as their first LP, Ill Considered 3 also shares that record’s fondness for improvisation. This wasn’t part of the plan; the band initially intended to record music they’d written beforehand, but soon realized upon entering Hoxa for the second time that their power lay in spontaneity and musical freedom.
The LP opens with “Djinn,” a meditative piece of mystical jazz where Leon Brichard’s simple, repeated bass motif and Satin Singh’s evocative percussion create space for Idris Rahman’s soaring saxophone. “Nada Brahma,” full of atmosphere and suggestion, also takes repetition as its starting point. There are touches of Indonesian gamelan in Brichard’s bass harmonics before Rahman’s sax and Emre Ramazanoglu’s drums explore more abstract terrain.
The transitions between quiet, meditative passages and head-nodding energetic peaks is even more evident on “Delusion,” a monstrous slab of drum-&-bass-meets-jazz-fusion that lands the quartet somewhere between ‘90s Photek and Bitches Brew-era Miles Davis. On that song, they transmit punk jazz energy similar to their U.K. contemporaries Comet is Coming and Sons of Kemet. With the calligraphy of Vincent de Boer gracing the album’s sleeve, they create a visual identity that reflects their sound—both intricate and wily. With 3, Ill Considered cement their place at the forefront of the growing London scene.
