Babelfish Reviews The Guardian, John Fordham 4 stars: 18th October 2012

Babelfish Reviews

•   The Guardian, John Fordham 4 stars: 18th October 2012

•   John Fordham, The Guardian- Lauderdale House, London. 4 stars-
      Live Review, 3rd December 2012

The four members of Babelfish are adept at springing surprises from diverse directions,
but they've become a close-knit chamber group without losing any personal quirks.
Their eponymously titled debut album united the world-class rhythm section of bassist
Chris Laurence and drummer Paul Clarvis, imaginative pianist Barry Green, and
the subtle vocals and cool accuracy of Brigitte Beraha. Their repertoire took in modern
poetry, contemporary classical music, standard songs, freebop and Latin music. Live,
they sound as if their collective reflexes are even sharper now than when that fine
album was made.

The ostensibly sketchy but rock-solid foundation provided by Laurence and Clarvis is
crucial to liberating Beraha and Green. The drummer, playing a minimal kit, which
promoter Brian Blain opined must be the property of a four-year-old, reverses the usual
drums-bass dynamics: on the Latin opener, in which Beraha wordlessly improvised in
a light-stepping, Flora Purim-like manner, Clarvis quietly fluttered, scurried, tickled and
tapped, while Laurence delivered plummy pizzicatos and sensuous note bends.

In Ned Rorem's Poem for F, Beraha gave his jealous lyrics an unsettlingly whimsical
lightness; and the standard song This Heart of Mine began with an airy looseness, but
revved up when Clarvis for the first time swapped sticks for brushes. Green's classical
phrasing curled round Beraha's own wistful lyrics in The Apple Tree, and Kirk Bats was an
uptempo rattle of piano hooks, bass counter-melodies, and crackling rimshots, which
steadily pushed Beraha from graceful swerves to startled cries. Green was in Bill
Evans mode in Alec Wilder's While We're Young, and a short suite in French by Beraha,
passed through a Latin glide, bebop for piano and voice, and a free-floating finale.

Babelfish might often be low key, but they're never subdued.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/dec/03/babelfish-review?INTCMP=SRCH

•Cambridge & Milton Keynes. 1st December 2012, The Guardian

•Album of the Year 2012- Sebastian Scotney, LondonJazzNews

•The Jazzmann, Tuesday, October 16, 2012 by Ian Mann
Babelfish is a new quartet co-led by vocalist Brigitte Beraha and pianist Barry Green. On
their début album they are joined by the vastly experienced rhythm pairing of Chris
Laurence (double bass) and Paul Clarvis (drums and percussion).

Beraha is a highly versatile vocalist capable of singing in a variety of jazz styles. She is
particularly adept at using her voice as an instrument as evidenced on her adventurous
solo recording “Flying Dreams” released on the F-re Presents label back in 2008 and
reviewed elsewhere on this site. Green is one of the most versatile pianists around and
has a particular affinity for working with singers. He also has a fruitful musical
partnership with Swedish born, London based vocalist Emilia Martensson, their album
“and so it goes…” was released on Babel earlier on this year. In a more orthodox jazz
context Green is an important component of alto saxophonist Martin Speake’s excellent
Generations quartet and has also led his own trio featuring American musicians Ben

Street (bass) and Jeff Williams (drums) releasing the album “The Music Of Chance” in
2008. Green is a busy guy, constantly in demand, a musician’s musician, but seems to be
rather taken for granted and generally under appreciated by the jazz public at large.

“The Music Of Chance” appeared on Green’s own Moletone label as does this début
Babelfish recording. The music of Babelfish is inspired by the worlds of classical music
and literature and features settings of Benjamin Britten plus original compositions
utilising the words of writers such as E.E. Cummings and Raymond Carver. The album is
dedicated to the memory of the recently deceased jazz pianist Pete Saberton
(1950-2012).

The recording commences with the song “Catch Me The Moon” written by bassist Dave
Manington, prolific Loop Collective member and leader of the sextet Riff Raff, a group
that also features the voice of Beraha. The tune which includes lyrics by Beraha
originally appeared on the Riff Raff album “Hullabaloo” and is Manington’s attempt to
write a jazz ballad whilst simultaneously referencing classical composers such as
Vaughan Williams, Britten and John Ireland. Beraha’s gently emotive voice and lyrics are
crucial to the song’s success but the arrangement also offers plenty of room for the
instrumentalists to stretch out with Laurence and Green both contributing eloquent and
lyrical solos.

“The Stream In The Valley” is one of Benjamin Britten’s many adaptations of traditional
folk songs. The beauty of the melody, movingly sung by Beraha masks the sadness and
resignation of the lyrics. There’s an almost hymnal quality about the tune and Green and
Laurence are again at their most lyrical and fluent with the gentle patter of Clarvis’
drums and percussion the perfect punctuation.

Green’s quirky “Kirk Bats” is based around repetitive rhythmic patterns and features the
wordless voice of Beraha soaring above. It’s a good example of the vocalist’s abilities in
this area and like much of her singing owes a significant debt to the style of the great
Norma Winstone, doyenne of discerning British female jazz vocalists.

The brooding “Poem For F” which deals with the subject of emotional jealousy was
written by the prolific American contemporary classical composer Ned Rorem (born
1923). Rorem has written across a broad spectrum from symphonies and concertos to art
song and is well known for his settings of poems. This intimate performance by the

Babelfish quartet serves Rorem’s work well with Beraha investing the song with emotive
depth and a quiet dignity sympathetically supported by the rest of the group.

Beraha’s own “Fatchi-Chuna” is a showcase for her remarkable talent for wordless vocal
improvising, her work is too inventive and adventurous to be demeaned by the rather
condescending term “scat”. Green also impresses here, soloing expansively in a loosely
structured piece that also involves a brushed drum episode from the always tasteful
Clarvis.

Another Beraha original “Sometime” also demonstrates the flexibility of her soaring,
wordless singing. With a strong melody and a curious sense of Englishness this sounds a
little like chamber jazz crossed with Soft Machine. Laurence’s bass provides the bridge
between the wordless vocal section and a closing verse featuring a pithy Beraha lyric.

“Popular Mechanics” is the most unusual track on the record, a Green setting of the
words of the late American poet and novelist Raymond Carver (1938-88). The libretto (if
you will) consists of the closing lines of Carver’s 1977 piece “Little Things” aka “Mine”
aka “Popular Mechanics”, a kind of cross between a poem and a short story. Green’s
setting sees Beraha pulling Carver’s words increasingly out of shape - it’s brief, unusual
and more than a little disturbing and needs to be heard to be fully appreciated.

The inclusion of Antonio Carlos Jobim’s “Falando De Amor” reflects Beraha’s ongoing
fascination with the sounds of Brazilian music. Her voice combines with Laurence’s
fluent double bass and Clarvis’ exotic percussion with Green’s comping holding it all
together.

Beraha’s “The Apple Tree” represents the group at their most tender and reflective and
highlights the remarkable chemistry between Beraha and Green. The lyrics may speak of
love, loss and regret but there are moments when Beraha’s wordless voice takes flight
impressively shadowed by Green with Laurence and Clarvis providing understated and
empathic support.

“Babel Fish” itself (the title presumably borrowed from Douglas Adams) is another
typically quirky offering from Green based about tricky but playful rhythmic patterns
and with Beraha occasionally stepping beyond the usual range of wordless vocals to

venture into the kind of abstract sound worlds inhabited by singers such as Julie Tippetts
and Maggie Nicols.

The album concludes with Green’s beautiful setting of E.E. Cummings words of love, loss
and acceptance “It May Not Always Be So”. Beraha’s gently emotive vocal, Green’s
sensitive and lyrical piano accompaniment plus Laurence’s woody, resonant bass and
Clarvis’ minimalist percussion combine to create an air of fragile delicacy.

“Babelfish” may be chamber jazz but it’s a lyrical, thoughtful and quietly adventurous
example of the genre. Although clearly inspired by Norma Winstone Beraha brings much
of herself to the performance and the music is a fascinating blend of jazz and classical
structures mixed with literature and poetry. There’s a quiet beauty about much of this
music but also a degree of intellectual rigour. All four musicians sing and play superbly
with Laurence and Clarvis, both of whom straddle the jazz/classical divide, the perfect
partners for the younger duo of Beraha and Green (indeed the singer and pianist
sometimes perform this music in a duo format). Some listeners may miss the element of
conventional jazz swing and find the quartet’s output a little too precious and rarefied.
However “Babelfish” is a quietly ambitious and often very beautiful album which
succeeds brilliantly on its own terms.

http://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/babelfish/

•Album Launch- Pizza Express Jazz Club, 15th July. LondonJazz

Last Sunday was the long awaited album launch of Babelfish, a collaboration
between Brigitte Beraha and Barry Green, recorded at Abbey Road with Paul Clarvis on
percussion and Chris Laurence on bass.

They performed tracks from their new album as well as a moving tribute to Pete
Saberton (to whom the album is dedicated) 'Heart, We Will Forget' by Copland segue-ing
into 'Chasing Rainbows' in front of a welcoming audience at Pizza Express.

These gracious and wonderfully talented musicians delivered an exciting and unusual
combination of music. Featured were new compositions, with highlights for me being
the remarkable eccentric 'Popular Mechanics' by Green with text from Raymond Carver,
the melancholy 'The Apple Tree' by Beraha, and cherished tunes such as the beautifully
executed 'Falando de Amor' by Jobim. And we can of course rely on Green and Beraha to
dive into lesser explored territory with art songs from Britten, the haunting 'Poem for
F' by Ned Rorem and a touching arrangement by Pete Bernstein of Alec Wilde's 'While
We're Young'.

This partnership is the sum of very special parts indeed. Brigitte Beraha's warm and
interpretative vocals are deployed with sincerity and musicality. She has a wondrous and
fearless ability to push the limits of vocal agility. Barry Green's inventive and sensitive
style of playing for which he is well recognised, create patterns of rich harmonies and
locked-in pulses from which he launches all kinds of unanticipated narratives.

The nothing but brilliant percussion by Paul Clarvis, the equally astounding Chris
Laurence and the visible joy of this band working together on stage were transferred to
the audience. The sensitivity toward the music and each other and the creation of space
within the form made it into a unique evening, a moment when magical soundscapes
would transport you out of our dreary London

http://www.londonjazznews.com/2012/07/review-babelfish-album-launch.html