Ó 12 Points 2008

Hard to credit that it’s five years since Mathew Bourne, then in his early twenties, played a solo set at ESB Dublin Jazz Festival, and the pianist has lost none of his unpredictable, instinctive modus operandi in the interim. He’s back with Belfast stalwarts, drummer Steve Davis and bassist Dave Kane with whom he’s just released “Lost Something” for UK independent Babel, but don’t expect music from any consensual view of the piano trio. Capable as this prodigiously gifted pianist is of moments of tender lyricism and very forthright swing, both of which could very well happen, this trio’s natural milieu seems somewhere that subverts jazz convention, from volatile forms that teeter toward implosion to a slightly demonic humour that appropriates a grab bag of popular culture motifs for its own amusement, and yours too.