Dave Gelly 

Kate Williams: Atlas & Vulcana review – a musical vocabulary that’s all her own

Kate Williams’s unique sound captivates, with a little help from some of Britain’s finest players, writes Dave Gelly
  
  

'Rare quality': jazz pianist and composer Kate Williams.
‘Rare quality’: jazz pianist and composer Kate Williams. Photograph: Guim

Kate Williams has a quality rare among jazz composers: a musical vocabulary that’s all her own. Restless, quirky and strewn with odd phrases that should sound out of place but don’t, these 11 pieces could be the work of no one else. Featuring her own piano in trio, quartet and seven-piece formats, they clearly take some playing too. Fortunately she has some of Britain’s finest players on hand, including flautist Gareth Lockrane, trumpeter Steve Fishwick and saxophonist Alex Garnett. Her originality extends to the unfailingly apt orchestration. On Moonset, the slowly changing textures are gorgeous.

 

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