Dinosaur: Wonder Trail
Edition Records

I won't profess to know why trumpeter Laura Jurd selected Dinosaur as the name for her quartet, but certainly the group's music is anything but fossilized. On the contrary, the playing on its sophomore release exudes the vitality of youth, and the material's just as fresh. Issued on the British label Edition Records, Wonder Trail sees Jurd (trumpet, synth), Elliot Galvin (synths), Conor Chaplin (electric bass), and Corrie Dick (drums) collapsing genre boundaries on nine concise tracks, all of them written by Jurd and laid down last October at a Wales studio.

It's tempting to call Wonder Trail jazz-rock, but the term's limiting and furthermore carries with it associations best left behind when dealing with Dinosaur's material. There are electronic and pop dimensions, for sure, plus a hint or two of prog. Jurd herself offers “synth-pop meets jazz band” as one possible encapsulation, though, aware of how reductive even that description is, pitches the simpler “Dinosaur is a trumpet-led, instrumental band” in the next breath.

Certainly it's a more synthesizer-oriented recording than the group's debut, and the compositional structures are arguably more emblematic of pop song form than jazz, even if soloing is worked judiciously into the arrangements, trumpet the primary solo instrument in many a case. Conventional jazz rhythms are eschewed for freer-floating grooves, with Dick's intricate drum patterns nicely anchored by Chaplin's electric bass, which, in the absence, of guitar or sax, figures more prominently in the mix than it might have otherwise.

Perhaps the best thing here is the second cut, “Quiet Thunder,” during which Chaplin and Dick stoke cool fire with a slinky, tinkle-sweetened funk groove alongside silken synth washes and a sultry melodic line that doubles Jurd's bell-like tone with synthesizer. Initially subdued, the music swells noticeably when a mid-song break sees staccato synth chords and a roaring bass figure followed by synth wail, lead bass playing, and an exuberant trumpet solo. Elsewhere, “Forgive, Forget” bolts from the gate with a hoedown-styled groove that lends the tune a hint of country swing, even if Jurd's solo turn brands it jazz in the long run, while “Old Times' Sake” perpetuates the swing vibe with a jubilant performance punctuated by synth stabs and forays into spacey territory.

May 2018