Fulborn Teversham @ The Shed, Hovingham Village Hall. 2nd May 2009

One of many of supreme jazz drum being Seb Rochford’s groups is hitting The Shed this weekend yet again. I’ve had the pleasure of seeing Polar Bear twice and the band tonight Fulborn Teversham just the once in this shed of a venue. Seb is joined by long time collaborator in such bands as Acoustic Ladyland and Polar Bear Pete Wareham on Sax, Nick Ramm on Nord synth and Alice Grant on vocals. They make one hell of a punk infused, experimental jazz racket unlike anything I’ve really heard before. They drift from sweet mellow smokey jazz numbers to full on balls to the wall skronk sessions, they even manage to sound something like ye olde seaside music at times mixed with a hammer horror soundtrack, interesting stuff.

A pint of Shed bitter a hand full of nuts and Fulborn Teversham take the stage, opening with a set of instrumentals in the first half then joined by Alice in the second for some vocal workouts. ‘Count Herbert II’ opens things nicely with a Transylvanian vibe with tweaked synths, elaborate drums and skronky sax. The mood ebbed and flowed from punked out hardcore jazz to deep and mellow ballads about love in a sweet melancholic style. Throughout the night pretty much everything of debut album, ‘Count Herbert II’ was played including maybe two or three new tracks.

The musician-ship on show tonight was something else, this group and all their projects blow me away each and every. Nick on the Nord really does make some quality sounds ranging from deep bass to skewed 8-bit-like gameboy, it’s a joy to hear. Seb’s drums are tight and varied as always playing some full on funk licks this time as well as almost 80’s like stuff in the ballads. Pete on sax can make eerie atmospheres or really crank it up and build layers of psychedelic hard rock-like melodies; he really takes you with him. Alice has such a wicked voice that can go from soft and delicate to all out punky shouts; she has a knack for lyrics too.

Highlights have to be, ‘Beachtune’, ‘Castle Music’, ‘Amazing’ and the closer ‘Silent’. To be fair it was all quality and The Shed bitter has made me forget some names. It was also a special day for The Shed’s head fella Simon, it being his birthday and all so much respect to him for that and putting on so many excellent nights.

Seb Rochford

This is my one of my favourite musicians. He has many projects and many styles, the ones I've found are Acoustic Ladyland, Polar Bear, Fulborn Teversham, Room of Katinas and Basquiat Strings. There could be many more he seems prolific. Seb Rochford plays drums, percusion and writes pretty much any style with a Jazz edge. Depending on what project you catch him doing it can range from frantic rock drums in Accoustic Ladyland to more subtle complicated drum work outs on Polar Bear. Each project is outstanding here is a little over veiw of them:

Acoustic Ladyland - Started as a Jimi Hendrix tribute act played on acoustic instruments, re-interpreting his songs in a jazz style. This soon evolved into a beast of its very own, they got them selves electric instruments and decided to make there own rock jazz hybrid Hendrix would be proud of. I recomend the last two albums; Last Chance Disco & Skinny Grin.

Polar Bear - Have two albums only one of which I've herd; Held In Finger Tips, it was nominated for a Murcury Music Prize one year. It is a more organic sounding jazz group with complicated rhythems battling sax, solid bass and truley amazing electronics from Leafcutter John, which is th only electronics in the group. This in some ways is as intense as Acoustic Ladyland, brilliant stuff. New album maybe on the way?

Fulborn Teversham - Are on Pickled Egg Records and have an album called Count Herbert II. This is a pretty funky and punky lot, and as with Acoustic Ladyland they pull it off in a unique and inventive style. Not your generic Punk Funk or Jazz Rock which could make so many run for the hills. This group has awsome sythn work with a truley quirky vibe to it and also beautiful vocals from Alice Grant that range from brutal to sweet often in the same song. The tunes are very wide ranging its a truley great album.

Room of Katinas - I have just stumbled apon myself, from the samples on the website its a project in the making. It seems to be just Seb Rochford in his room with minimal instrumentation, mostly just drums and accoustic guitar. This could be one to watch.

Basquiat Strings Feat. Seb Rochford - As far as I am aware this Murcury nominated album just has Seb on drums and not wrting much, I could be wrong. His beats set a beautiful bed for the Jazz string section to work over. The styles go from jazz to classical and even some salsa style funk.

Live these groups are really special and I will be suporting them any time I can with going to gigs and buying records. Check them out my words can't do this justice.