Nik Weston presents - Japanese Jazz With Attitude

Even by Nik Weston’s foolproof standards, Quiet Fire is jazz tumbling from out the blue and ready to catch ears off guard should they be insufficiently prepared. Roy Haynes’ cover version is manned by members of the Soil & Pimp Sessions, and it’s a real stop-starter of a somersault that’s as nimble as a candlestick-jumper once it escapes prolonged bouts of the fidgets. Perhaps as much a visual spectacle as an audio one, if you manage to keep up you’re doing well. The pedometer is off the radar once the ivories (that’s 88 keys, seemingly recalculated by Josei to the power of infinity) and percussion (the skins and hi-hats receive a right bruising from Midorin, without ever being clouted) get into sixth gear and turn the dancefloor into a breathe-n-stop dervish, all without ever losing its poise and laughing at the prospect of breaking sweat.
Soil & Pimp Sessions’ Shacho joins Jazztronik on the much more accessible Heat, where there’s greater inclination for you to join in rather than look on as an impressed spectator. Not to say that it drags its heels though; the sprightly Latin jazz has all the ingredients to put your garden party in society’s upper echelons, with the procession of assured brass, diligent keys, wiry guitar and a smattering of digital fuzz (also listen hard for a whoop-ready ringmaster ushering the party along) a combination swamped in pleasant, air-sweetening classiness.