THE ARGUELLES QUINTET

"Birmingham raised, Paris based former Loose Tube drummer Steve Arguelles is one of the most original and unique drummers in the world. He brings his quintet together to celebrate their 10th anniversary, featuring brother Julian (alto sax), Stuart Hall (guitar & violin), Huw Warren (accordion) and Steve Watts (double bass). He is much in demand, not only amongst the most influencial international musicians but as an associate for film, theatre, dance and production work. Steve's reference points are Human Chain, John Taylor, the late Dudu Pukwana, but his collaborators include Mose Allison, Alex Balenescu, Slim Gaillard, Mike Gibbs, Hugh Masekela, Michael Nyman and many others. His latest album Busy Listening received rave reviews."
Festival's Programme

"I like Duke Ellington's music, but I wouldn't play it, it has been done". These parting words by Steve Arguelles, at the end of the interview he held with myself and Tracy Fletcher, of the Hull Daily Mail, sums up the Arguelles Quintet approach to music. We must be grateful that they are not playing the Duke's music, what they are actually playing is something unique, with a very particular flavour, the closest band I can think of with that kind of sound is The Penguin Cafe Orchestra.

It is new music, with a very original sound, if it is jazz, then it is Jazz for the Global Village. The Internet is the appropriate place to say this, summing up the virtuosity, the style and the breadth of the sound of the Arguelles Quintet.

The band performed in the evening of Thursday 31th of July at Hull Truck Theatre, a black box small theatre, the third day of Kingston upon Hull's International Jazz Festival.

When the band walked into the black stage, with white linen drappings at the back, I just said to myself: 'Bloody hell!'. What I had in front of me was anything but a jazz band, or, at least, what I ever thougth a jazz band should look like.

What I was watching with my poor eyes was a heterogenous collection of 'characters', all dressed 'casually', although even this description is an understatement.

Stuart Arguelles was the first to walk into the stage, the sort-of-pink colour of his T-shirt defied any possible description; while Stuart Hall had shorts and sneakers with no socks on; Huw was picking up his accordion at the back with olive green white paint stained work trousers, and a bright yellow with orange shirt, with no palm trees on it, I am afraid to say!

Steve Watts and Julian Arguelles were sort-of-dressed more 'norma...', er... what shall I say?

This lot somehow just managed to get to their places in the stage and started playing almost straightaway, to the delight of the rather small but discerning audience.

It was like magic!

Their first piece came from a very slow beginning building up into a frantic crescendo that had the audience screaming by the end of it, the whole piece underscored with undertones reminiscent of Bossa Nova, a certain Latinamerican flavour lingering in it.

"Persuasive", "it grows in you as they get into playing", "rich and deep sound", "lingering and subtle quality", are words and phrases conveying the initial impression of the band's sound.

This piece was the very first that the band ever played, ten years ago at Grimsby Jazz Festival.

Steve Arguelles with this number Steve Arguelles acknowledged the support they had had from the discerning public during this past decade, celebrating these past ten years by just playing!

Shambles followed soon, dedicated in the words of Steve Arguelles' to "Stuart Hall somehow", a piece which transported me to a world of deep earthy browns and greens, like being in the back garden of a Southern Villa during a beautiful early summer evening. Traces of Balinese music, the lingering notes of Argentinian tangos, and a slightly residue of the Penguin Cafe Orchestra lurching behind the melodies.

Music like a love story!

Like being in LOVE with music itself.

A band not only to listen to, but also an absolute delight to watch, as they also 'play' with their body language and facial expressions. Humour, subtle humour, is an integral part of their visual repertoire, Stuart Arguelles' seductive movements and faces, all the time undercoring his skillful performance at the drums.

Huw Warren's intense concentration at the accordion, his body following the sensual movements of the instrument, a performance reminiscent of what I have seen of Tex-Mex musician Flaco Jiménez, particularly when playing with Ry Cooder. Steve Arguelles did not acknowledged Flaco Jiménez at all, so the nature of the instrument itself is defining then accordionists' performing movements and body language, rather than a direct influence from any particular player.

Every possible distortion they can affect on their instruments, messing up with the mic, scratching the drums surface, using a mobile telephone, is used to make music. I was reminded of a bus driver in Rio de Janeiro, waiting for a red traffic light to turn green. His tapping of a samba on the steering wheel out of boredom was had in just a few seconds the whole bus tapping on the seats and floor to its rhythm.

Andalucian and Morrocan influences were ackowledged in some of the pieces played subsequently, Redman being performed with pedestal, guitar and violin. Touches of Kurt Weill's pre-war music were also present here and there, Explosions having a dream-like atmosphere, appealing to the uncosncious layers of the mind in a very lingering manner.

Guara was a rapid melody, a joropo galloping from the plains of Venezuela, the open spaces from Southamerica taking over the enclosed auditorium of Hull Truck Theatre.

Peacocks started as a tango, an arabic melody insinuated and took over it, a slow lament coming out of the heart... the seductive arabic rhythm floating over the black space, with the accordion in a crescendo producing a draping, rich and deep sound, Huw's hands burning with the intense effort and concentration demanded, with a delirious quality, almost demented, to the violin.

Big Fun was their final piece, and this is what it was, music being played for us to enjoy, to an audience which by now was almost standing on their feet, requesting for them to come back to the stage to rapturous applauses, clearly impacted by the Arguelles Quintet.

Their sound draws from a wide range of sources across the world, from the secluded and ancient world of Bali to the open plains of Venezuela. I just cannot put them in a box, this is what I like of them. The blues and greens of the skies and seas of this planet, their people, are at the root of their music.

Eclecticism is played with the confidence and the loose approach of a jazz band of the global village era. Eclecticism is an integral part of the Arguelles brothers, as their family is of French origin, although the brothers themselves were raised in, of all cities, utilitarian Birmingham. Steve is currently based in Paris.

Busy Listening, their second album, on the Babel label, was recently released in the UK.

The quintet has performed in Canada, Portugal, China, France, Grimsby Jazz Festival being their next stop.

This is a band formed by real musicians, with extraordinary skills, who actually enjoy making music!