Corto.Alto music review: A pop-jazz odyssey
Liam Shortall’s musical project continues to impress with a knotted but accessible approach to jazz
‘See when you’re playing a German jazz festival, covering Justin Bieber really annoys people,’ claims Corto.Alto’s Liam Shortall before launching into a labyrinthine version of one of the former teeny bopper’s more recent bouts of mumble pop. It might be the first time that Bieber has ever been invoked at the Edinburgh International Festival, and it encapsulates why Shortall’s fun-loving, wholly unpretentious take on jazz is edging ever closer to the mainstream.
The show comes mere weeks before he releases his second album, Some Small Fortune, and acts as both a teaser for the new project and a showcase of exactly why Shortall and his band (including regular collaborator, and success in his own right, Fergus McCreadie) have graduated to Ninja Tune. While he may be closely associated with the rise of contemporary jazz, Shortall isn’t afraid to incorporate elements of funk and soul into his repertoire, occasionally cribbing from the same hymn sheet as fellow limber bassist Thundercat. Elsewhere, the stuttering rhythms of modern rap veer into view with a sample from Kendrick Lamar.
Enthusiasm radiates from Shortall in both his music and his playing. More often than not, he’ll set a beat on his looper, watch in awe for a while as his bandmates jam, then holler an instruction with the air of an irrepressible foreman, seemingly lost in the magic of his creation. He’s a bandleader happy to cede the floor to his collaborators, even passing his launchpad to a teenage boy in the front row during a rousing closer. It remains a pleasure to watch Corto.Alto crack a window on a previously stuffy jazz scene.
Corto.Alto, Reviewed at The Hub; picture: Jess Shurte.