Jake Baxendale – Waypeople (Earshift) (13th Floor Album Review)
Jake Baxendale’s Waypeople opens with the bright shimmer of a guzheng cutting cleanly through the silence, its plucked strings gliding outward before saxophone, piano and drums gather around them.
For a moment the music seems to hover between stillness and motion. Then Chelsea Prastiti’s voice enters, steady and unhurried, and the ensemble begins to move. From these first notes the album sets its direction. Ancient Taoist verse travels through a contemporary jazz group where melody, rhythm and improvisation shift and settle with deliberate control.
Baxendale’s project draws on Ursula K. Le Guin’s translation of the Tao Te Ching, shaping its verses into a set of compositions that explore movement, contrast and restraint. The ensemble assembled for the recording offers a wide palette of sound. Jia Ling’s guzheng sits at the centre of the music, its bright plucked notes and flowing glides threading through the arrangements with striking clarity. Baxendale moves between alto, tenor and baritone saxophones as well as clarinet and bass clarinet, shifting the colour of the ensemble from lyrical warmth to darker reed tones. Callum Passells adds further brightness on sopranino and alto saxophones, his agile phrases darting and curling through the group. Daniel Hayles builds the harmonic framework with piano and vibraphone, placing steady chords beneath the ensemble and occasionally sending metallic tones ringing through the music. Johnny Lawrence anchors the group with grounded double bass lines while Cory Champion’s drumming shapes the music’s motion, moving from quiet pulses to sudden bursts of force. Above the band Prastiti delivers the Taoist text with clear, measured phrasing.
The opening track Taoing unfolds slowly. The band gathers around Prastiti’s voice while the guzheng returns between lines with flashes of sound. Champion’s snare introduces a soft pulse and Baxendale’s saxophone climbs gradually into higher notes before the arrangement narrows again toward a gentle close. Mindful of Little Things arrives with greater activity. Drums and saxophone step forward immediately while the rhythm section rolls beneath the vocal melody in a loose shuffle. Hayles punctuates the lines with piano accents and saxophone phrases rise and fall around the voice, giving the ensemble a constant internal motion.
A sharp shift in mood arrives with Being Different. The band surges forward as Champion drives the rhythm hard beneath the horns. Sudden stops fracture the momentum before the ensemble lunges ahead again. The track carries a raw immediacy that briefly pushes the music toward rock territory. The expansive Soul Food stretches the group further. Rising saxophone lines introduce the piece before the groove settles into fast shuffling drums and nimble piano figures. The music twists through several instrumental passages as Passells sends irregular saxophone phrases across the rhythm section. When the vocals return near the end the music gathers itself into a calmer closing section.
The album also leaves space for reflection. Techniques opens with quiet plucked strings while Prastiti delivers the words as spoken guidance. Hayles answers with small chimes and piano tones while faint percussion rustles beneath the arrangement. A rattling sound grows into a deeper rumble before the track closes with a final cymbal strike. Jia Ling’s guzheng takes centre stage in Celebrating Mystery (Intro), moving between high and low notes in slow measured phrases that briefly intensify before settling again. The full ensemble piece that follows deepens the mood with low drones, sliding strings and drawn out vocal lines that give the music a ceremonial gravity.
The album closes with the intense Against War. A stark piano introduction repeats heavy phrases while a low rumble gathers beneath the surface. When the band enters the tension rises sharply. Saxophone bursts through the ensemble while Champion’s drums drive the rhythm in tight circles. The music climbs toward a dense peak before suddenly collapsing into breath like sounds and faint whistles. Prastiti delivers the closing words with stark emphasis and the piece ends on a fading exhale.
Across Waypeople, Baxendale shapes a musical space where composition and improvisation move side by side. Jia Ling’s guzheng sends bright runs through the ensemble while Baxendale and Passells lift saxophone lines above the steady rhythm section. Hayles colours the music with piano and vibraphone while Lawrence and Champion provide a foundation that can tighten or loosen at will. At the centre stands Prastiti’s voice, steady and clear as the Taoist verses pass through the music. Throughout the album the ensemble feels fully alive, horns circling, drums gathering force and the guzheng scattering bright cascades of notes through the music.
John Bradbury
Waypeople is out Friday, March 13 via Earshift
