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I’m sure that brought a smile to the Evening Standard’s Jack Massarik when he saw that at the end of the Su-Ling page on Babel’s web site that compares Massarik’s review of Finn Peters live at the Vortex vs. Fly’s very own Damian Rafferty’s.

While Damian is out on the town, I’m back in the office catching up on Finn’s debut album sans Tuba (Oren Marshall) and Trombone (Trevor Mires of The Nostalgia 77 Octet, Plumstead Radical Club).

Finn’s debut album justly made the top 10 albums of last year in Jazzwise and it’s as much a tribute to the rest of the group including Nick Ramm, Tom Herbert, Tom Skinner and the excellent guitarist David Okumu.

The album opens with ‘Al Dar Gazelli’ that starts with African rhythms provide by Okumu before settling into a the sax and piano led mid-tempo jazz blast. It’s a tune that announces that Finn has arrived.

We know Finn’s flute work is excellent from the Club Brazil Latin tip and it’s re-affirmed on ‘Nelson’s Blood’, which goes a little synthy tango and — you’d never have guessed— ‘Gato’ is a tribute to Argentina’s Gato Barbieri in a fusioneque period; great performance by the band on this dancer.

The sleeve notes have a quote from Mr. Gilles Peterson remarking that he was lucky to have several of these tracks upfront. In the case of the title track, very upfront as he was playing it 2 years ago! A ‘Su-Ling’ is a bamboo flute used in Gamelan music and Finn shows us here that he can do modal oriental as well as Yusef Lateef!

The only non-Finn original is Ramm’s ‘Ballad Boy’ that is a straightforward instrumental ballad. It’s a million miles away from F-ire school-style of ‘N.R. Shackleton Goes To The Circus’ and ‘Fast Fish, Loose Fish’. Okumu put in a glorious jazz guitar solo of the kind you just don’t hear that often these days. ‘Red Fish’ is another F-ire type track, semi-broken flamenco but definitely jazz with a big bumbling bass; the avant-fish movement starts here.

The album closes with ‘Machine Gun’, which hasn’t got the size impact as when the F-ire Collective did it live but the smaller group brings its own intensity as it’s awesomely chilling and inspiring all at the same time. Okumu shines again with his tracer bullet impersonations from the gantry and you can see from the bonus version of ‘Machine Gunn’ how Ramm got onto the Cinematic Orchestra tour.

If you go back as far as Finn’s Grupo X period (like 2000’s X-posure), his development is self-evident here and it’s great that he can now stand as his own man as leader, performer, writer and producer. When they talk of the jazz power of babel, this album says it all.

I really hope that the next album has a track called “So, dear Jack, don’t talk through your arse” but in the meantime, get some Su-Ling and you’ll see why it has been so highly acclaimed.

Hectic Mix nominations: ‘Machine Gun’ (alt. take), ‘Red Fish’, ‘Nelson’s Blood’ ‘Gato’, ‘Su-Ling’

Reviewed: Finn Peters — Su-Ling (Babel) Cat. No. BDV2664 Release date: 2006

Saxophone, Flute, Percussion, Producer — Finn Peters
Guitar — Dave Okumu
Piano, Synthesizer — Nick Ramm
Bass — Tom Herbert
Drums, Percussion — Tom Skinner

Tracklisting:
1 Al Dar Gazelli (8:41)
2 Gato (4:15)
3 Red Fish (6:26)
4 Ballard Boy (5:54)
5 Su-Ling (5:30)
6 N.R. Shackleton Goes To The Circus (6:01)
7 Nelson’s Blood (6:40)
8 Fast Fish, Loose Fish (8:00)
9 Machine Gun (5:52)
10 Machine Gun (Alternative Version) (6:13)

Links:
Finn Peters Quintet — Best Band nomination — 2007 BBC Jazz Awards
Su-Ling Albums of 2006: no.6 in Jazzwise www.babellabel.co.uk
www.grupo-x.com
Gilles Peterson :: Sunday 10 September 06:: Amp Fiddler session
Finn Peters — ‘Su-Ling’ (Babel)
Gilles Peterson :: Tracklisting 06/02/05 :: Tuung in Session
1) Roots Manuva — A Haunting (Big Dada)
2) Hefner — An Evening With Hefner Part 3 (Inertia)
3) Lucky Pierre — Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child (White)
4) David Bowie — Aladdin Sane (RCA)
5) Joe Hariott — Modal (Columbia)
6) Finn Peters — Su-ling (White)