Winners of the inaugural EBU / European Jazz Competition, Empirical, a young U.K. based quintet, has been generating quite a buzz in North America over the past few months. "How do you all feel about George Bush?," asked alto saxophonist Nathaniel Facey to the crowd hastily thrown together for their impromptu show at the beautiful Bell Epoque Room in Toronto's Liberty Village. He's not bating the crowd, nor is he trying to make a political statement. Rather, he's asking, because clearly, he doesn't want to offend anyone. When the crowd responds to his question with an audible moan - and one woman yells, "Bring on November!"- Facey smiles. "Alright then, " he says, "this is called 'A Tyrant's Tale.'"
Each member of the Empirical - Jay Phelps (trumpet/voice), Nathaniel Facey (alto saxophone/voice), Kit Downes (piano), Tom Farmer (bass) and Shaney Forbes (drums/percussion) - is as strong on his respective instrument as the next. All (with the exception of Farmer), have compositions included on their remarkably assured self-titled debut recording, which was produced by OBE recipient and renowned saxophonist Courtney Pine.
What is striking about their compositions is that it is difficult to tell where one member of the group's writing ends and another begins. Speaking with Forbes between sets, I mentioned that I heard influences in the writing ranging from John Coltrane to Eric Dolphy to Terence Blanchard to Vijay Iyer. He laughed, "Yeah, Nathaniel's going through a real Dolphy phase right now...we're going to be working on something Dolphy related when we get back home." Clearly, if Nathaniel Facey is going through a Dolphy phase, every member of Empirical will go through that phase right along with him. In that way, Empirical truly function as a group. Influenced by both the jazz tradition and contemporary jazz artists, most of all, Empirical seems to be influenced by one another.
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