Big Bad Wolf: Pond Life review – teasing, intriguing young jazz band

Music colleges might continue to teach the harmonic language of bebop as a fundamental of jazz education, but the ways in which creative young musicians use those adaptable skills – in frameworks from electronica to hip-hop via Björk, Radiohead or Frank Zappa – are constantly intriguing. An attractive recent arrival is Big Bad Wolf, a quartet of frontrunners from the Royal Academy and Leeds College of Music, comprising trombone, six-string electric bass, guitar (the excellent Rob Luft) and drums. They unhurriedly navigate an almost entirely ensemble-generated sound of teasingly chilled-out melodic loops, laid-back vocal chants, eccentrically skipping Zappa-like motifs, and the occasional diversion into humming guitar solos, and softly fluffy trombone improv. Luft’s fondness for a kora-like African sound colours the snappy Hopkin’s Choice and the playfully hooky Frog; rock lullaby Grassfish builds to an EST-like clamour, and the title track affirms how inventively the quartet juggle tone colour, constantly renewing sub-themes, and subtly shifting grooves. It’s not jazzy on the outside, but deep down there’s no mistaking it’s there.