Hanging out with the Nationwide
Mercury Prize nominees
JAZZ
“I
t’s been an amazing journey,” laughs Nick Mulvey as he looks
back at the last two years of the Portico Quartet. From buskers
on London’s South Bank to nominees for the most sought after
of musical awards, the Mercury Prize, who would have thought
that a band whose debut album, Knee Deep In The North Sea, was
originally financed by the guys’ own student grants, would now
be going mano a mano with such giants of the music world as
Radiohead and Robert Plant.
Mulvey, percussionist and hang man for Portico (and more of
the hang anon) is understandably chuffed.
“Without being overly cocky, we’re confident we should be
at the Mercuries. We’ve always believed in the music and in
“The Mercuries are a stamp of recognition: for ourselves it’s
a way we’re already winners in that the nomination brings
good to know that what we’re doing is the right thing.”
attention to what we’re doing.” Nick Mulvey
And the right thing as far as the Quartet is concerned is
making music that is fresh, hook laden, irresistibly melodic
the mysteries of the title track to the irresistible dance of
yet also rich with the improvisatory surprise of jazz. There
Cittagazze.
are other elements, such as the band’s use of taut rhythms
gleaned from minimalist composers like Reich and Glass. But
So the Portico Jazz Quartet are as jazz as you like, as world
what really brings a sonic identity to Knee Deep In The North
music as you like and definitely as cool as you want. And for
Sea, is the hang.
good measure they’re still horribly young and loving every
minute of their arrival in the spotlight.
The band’s first hang was bought almost on a whim by
drummer Duncan Bellamy. It looks like a wok and sounds
“It’s just a great adventure,” explains Mulvey, “there’s an
like a cross between a charm bar and Caribbean steel pans.
element that feels like an hilarious joke that four friends have
But that does no credit to the hypnotic, cyclical patterns
got to here, almost on a whim, although we’ve always been
that Mulvey and Bellamy weave, laying down grooves that
totally driven and serious about the music.”
magically mix the trance like qualities of dance with the
And don’t worry, you can still catch them busking on the South
hypnotic repetitions of an Indonesian gamelan.
Bank – rave reviews of albums are great, prize nominations are
Decorate these glimmering, shifting shapes with Jack Wylie’s
fab, “but we’re still skint!” muses Mulvey…
fragile yet graceful saxophone and anchor it with Milo
Andy Robson
Fitzpatrick’s stomping double bass and you’ve concocted a
sound that appeals to a multitude of audiences. After all, you
won’t find many bands that can wow punters at such different
venues as the Glastonbury Festival, the Brecon and London
Jazz Festivals or the altogether more dancey Big Chill as these
guys have done over the last year. Cruise the airwaves and
they’re as likely to crop up on XFM as they are Radio’s 1 or 3.
Come autumn the Quartet will be back in the prestigious
Real World Studios to work on their new album, an intriguing
prospect because although their live concerts are refreshing
for their acoustic qualities, the band are also intrigued by
loops and beats and have even upgraded to acquire a four
octave marimba which has
Mulvey drooling. And Mulvey
hopes the Mercury nomination
“will give us access to other
artists for collaborations…that
would be very cool indeed, to
work with someone like Rokia
Traore, the Malian singer...”
But for now we have the riches
of Knee Deep In The North Sea
Knee Deep In The
which moves from the melodic
North Sea
ecstasy of News From Verona
Bable/Vortex
to the groove driven bounce
BVOR2769
of Zavodovski Island, from
Properganda 10 28
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