Safe Places

Safe Places

Esther Bennett: Vocals
Terence Collie: Piano, Synth Bass, Keyboards
Richard Sadler: Double Bass
Sophie Alloway: Drums
Duncan Lamont Jnr: Flute/sax
Hannah Horton: Sax
Matt Hodge: Percussion

The title of this EP is inspired by the autobiography of the saxophonist Dick Heckstall Smith, in which he describes being on stage as "The Safest Place in the World”.


ESTHER BENNETT

One of the jazz scene's most experienced, highly respected and widely loved vocalists, juxtaposing sensitivity with a sparky sense of humour. Her song delivery leaves audiences utterly compelled.

"Vocalist Esther Bennett's virtues include a smokily appealing lower register and a winning sense of humour” - Jazz Wise Magazine


TERENCE COLLIE 

Terence Collie has developed enormous respect as a jazz pianist able to cross many styles while retaining a strong personal identity. A true renaissance man and polymath consistently working as a musician, promoter and audio/video producer.

“Furious pulsing piano from the filigree of Terence Collie” - Alban Low, Art Of Jazz
“played with clarity and subtlety” - Sebastian Scotney, London Jazz News


It’s March 2020 and the government announce a national lockdown due to the Coronavirus pandemic that has gripped much of the world. What's a singer to do? Write of course! What is a singer without the necessary accompanying skills with which to write the harmonies of a song to do? Well, to begin with, I thought it an ideal time to do what every self-respecting jazz singer should do at some point in their career and that is to write a contrafact - a musical composition built using the chord progression of a pre-existing song, but with a new melody and arrangement.

I chose two well known jazz standards; All of Me written by Gerald Marks & Seymour Simons and Well You Needn't written by Thelonious Monk, upon which to paint new stories. Only one of these is on the EP (the Monk composition now entitled Yellow Label Stuff) but I had an enormous amount of fun working on both.
A lengthy and complicated, possibly a bit too fussy and clever process, but I was really pleased with the results. Armed with the knowledge that songwriting possibilities were now endless due to the thousands of songs available to me from “The American Songbook" alone, I would have carried on in the same vein, were it not for one day coming across a recording of an instrumental composition, written and performed by my good friend and colleague, pianist Terence Collie - a beautiful composition in 5/4 entitled End of Summer.

I knew immediately that I wanted to write lyrics to this piece. Terence was happy for me to do so and suggested that we then record the new song. I told him that I had a few more original tunes - those that I'd just written, another in the pipeline and a couple that I'd written with other musicians over ten years ago, to which he responded "then why don't we do an EP?"
And here we are....

As experienced performers, we both know and have worked with some of the best musicians in the UK and in Europe. It wasn't difficult, therefore, to select a band who would bring these compositions to their most full and beautiful life.
We chose the traditional jazz trio format with the addition of percussion, saxes and flute to give just the right flavours that the swing, bossa, funk, latin and 5/4 grooves required. The tracks were recorded individually and remotely by each musician, as were the vocals. Terence Collie mixed, engineered and produced the album adding subtle vintage synth pads for textures on the opening two songs which add to giving the album a very distinctive and personal sound.

Special thanks to:

Janet McCunn of Mood Indigo Events
Riverside Arts Centre, Sunbury on Thames
Steve Rubie at the 606
Paul Pace at The Spice of Life and Ronnie Scotts