2020 Jazz Albums of The Year: James Copus / 'Dusk'

TDF’s Max Mazonowicz describes the album as, “the sheer joyfulness that is evident throughout the whole venture.”

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Our three favourite jazz albums of 2020 are covered in The Digital Fix Albums of 2020 (Kruder & Dorfmeister's 1995, Shabaka and the Ancestors' We Are Sent Here by History and Tigran Hamasyan's The Call Within), but while the young British jazz scene featuring Moses Boyd, Kokoroko, Nerija, Seed Ensemble, Nubya Garcia and the Ezra Collective didn't make as much of an impact as the previous year, 2020 was nonetheless an exceptional year in for established jazz musicians like Gary Bartz, Pat Metheny, Brad Mehldau and Joshua Redman as well as for other young rising stars like Immanuel Wilkins, Ellen Andrea Wang, Rob Luft and James Copus.

Music of the Month: October

Members of Palatinate‘s editorial team are creating Spotify playlists formed of ten recommended songs. Martha Lily Dean Selects james copus’ ‘Early Hours’ as one of the top tracks.

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James Copus – ‘Early Hours’

I first came across James Copus on Instagram, where his tasteful improvisations often inspired my own practice. Copus is known for his work as a session musician, with a recent endeavour including recording for Jacob Collier’s Djesse Vol. 3. Therefore, I found myself excited for the release of his long-awaited debut album Dusk. Each of the seven tracks are written by Copus for jazz quartet, and all provide the listener with a plethora of originality and experimental flair, with his quartet completed by Tom Cawley (keys), Conor Chaplin (bass), and Jason Brown (drums). The opening track, ‘Early Hours’ reveals an enigmatic sense of melancholy to the album; Copus plays with impressive precision from his opening notes. With an impeccably clean tone that carries the listener through the song with ease, Copus is truly an incredibly refreshing young jazz artist and a musician to watch. One of the most musically exhilarating albums of the year so far, Copus’ writing is both lyrical and vibrant, providing a new spin to the modern jazz scene.

JOE DOWNARD AND JAMES COPUS – THE DYNAMIC DUO REBOOT JAZZ CAFE LIVE PERFORMANCES

Jazzwise’s James Rybacki writes, “All in all, it’s both a triumphant return to live music and a chance for Ubuntu Music to show off some of the exquisite talent they’ve got on the roster.”

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The Joe Downard Sextet. Photo by Monika S Jakubowska.

The Joe Downard Sextet. Photo by Monika S Jakubowska.

A return, at last, to live jazz and all that comes with it. The frenetic improvisation of top-drawer players spurred on by an enraptured crowd, the electric charge that ripples around the room as a wicked chord change throws you, a blue note cuts through, and the band brings it all together to rise to a crescendo.

Onstage in Camden Town’s newly socially distanced Jazz Cafe, the relief from the artists is almost palpable. They’re back to doing what they love, and playing with a renewed passion and zest - you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.

Launching his album Seven Japanese Tales after what must have been an agonising and uncertain wait, Joe Downard wields his upright bass with downright intensity, steering his band adroitly through seven lush and long pieces. Leading the attack, Alex Hitchcock and James Copus’s respective saxophone and trumpet play off each other magnificently, intertwining with invention and restlessly sparring.

The rhythm players come into their own on songs like ‘Terror’, where a driving and busy opening gives way to a more pensive and meandering middle section. Later in the set, the tense chords at the start of ‘The Thief’ are even more awesomely jarring in person than they are on the record. There, they are exquisitely dissonant. Here, they almost strike fear in the best way possible.

James Copus starts his set with new material, a languid groove that lays the foundation for the set and showcases the trumpeter’s evident chops. Copus’s material from his album ‘Dusk’ has a more electronic feel for the live set, with an electric bass and Fender Rhodes sound changing up the musical soundscape. The keys playing enters more synthy territory at times, getting very glitchy and outside, spiraling chaotically before coming back in line. All in all, it’s both a triumphant return to live music and a chance for Ubuntu Music to show off some of the exquisite talent they’ve got on the roster. “We’re taking over London,” co-founder Martin Hummel tells me between sets, “come with us!” Gladly.

3 ALBUMS NOT TO MISS…

Jazz in Europe’s Erminia Yardley writes, “a recent release on Ubuntu Music, a label that has gone from strength to strength. With executive producer, Martin Hummel,  James Copus  “Dusk” is 39 minutes of pure bliss. From “Early Hours” to “Outro” (first and last tracks on the album), I find it a great work throughout.

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For the full article, please click on the image, above.

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REVIEW: James Copus 'Dusk'

Jazz Journal’s Simon Adams writes, “Trumpeter James Copus has been making quite a name for himself in British jazz circles in recent years, and this, his debut album, has been much awaited.”

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Trumpeter James Copus has been making quite a name for himself in British jazz circles in recent years, and this, his debut album, has been much awaited. He’s assembled a strong band to support him, notably Jason Brown, drummer to the trumpeter of the moment, Ambrose Akinmusire.

All the six compositions are the leader’s, a mixture of post-bop workouts and fusion moods that reflect his devotion to Blue Note jazz, notably Freddie Hubbard, and to the current New York scene.

The opening Early Hours is as much a feature for Tom Cawley’s fluent piano as it is for the leader’s clean, pitch-perfect lines, although it is Brown’s dynamic drumming, ignoring strict time keeping, that captures the ear. The Line and From The Source are both dominated by Cawley’s synthesizers, with their great sweeps of sound, the leader gliding cleanly over the top, avoiding grandstanding statements in favour of a fluent logic.

The title track works well for its quieter approach, the leader’s foggy vocals drifting nicely along, although the concluding drum solo that leads into From The Source is an unstable bridge. Elsewhere, Straight Ahead is a self-explanatory post-bop feature for the leader, Yearning a quiet, melancholy excuse for bassist Conor Chaplin to shine. The brief Outro pulls everything together to end on a collective high.

All in all, it adds up to a fine release from a trumpeter with a great future ahead of him.