Charlotte Keeffe – Right Here, Right Now 

(Discus Records 107CD. Review by Tony Dudley-Evans)

Improvising trumpeter Charlotte Keeffe is an extremely versatile and active player; she leads her own quartet, is one of the main organisers of the Mopomoso sessions of improvised music that take place at The Vortex and more recently online. A key figure in the London Improvisers Orchestra (LIO), she is much in demand a soloist with various improvising groups, for example Andrew Woodhead’s group of improvisers and bellringers that has recently recorded the Pendulums album.

This album is in essence a showcase for her various projects; we have three tracks with her quartet recorded live at a Jazz at The Cockpit session, three tracks with the London Improvisers Orchestra (LIO) and three smaller scale tracks that feature Charlotte solo or in a duo setting with guitarist Diego Sampieri.

The quartet sessions are particularly impressive with their movement between composed sections and freely improvised passages.  Each member of the quartet, Moss Freed on guitar, Ashley John Long on double bass, and Ben Handysides on drums has the ability to move between structure and freedom thereby creating constantly evolving pieces.  This is definitely one of the ways forward for jazz and improvised music.

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Charlotte Keeffe is a player of great imagination and sensitivity.  The solo and duo pieces show both these aspects of her playing.  OM, the duo with Diego Sampieri, is particularly poignant, and The Melody’s In The Post, a solo trumpet and flugelhorn piece inspired by a melody of Alicia Gardener-Trejo’s, makes effective use of electronics.

Charlotte’s imagination is also to the fore in the three improvisations with the LIO.  These tracks are built around the unique and wonderful textures that a large group of improvisers create when improvising together.  Mysterious Breath is a track for 36 improvisers which features her improvising, largely with her trumpet mouthpiece, To Steve Beresford for a smaller group of 18 improvisers is a conduction led by Charlotte as is Right Here, Right Now, for 29 improvisers,

This album with its huge variety has captured very effectively the impressive range of Charlotte Keeffe’s activities.

LINK: Bandcamp