Recording of the Week, Charlie Pyne Quartet - Nature is a Mother

There is something so effortlessly poetic about the turning of the seasons, never more so than at the arrival of spring with its imagery of renewal and rebirth. A certain Stratfordian bard wrote in one of his sonnets about the month of April's ability to “put a spirit of youth in everything”. Even Geoffrey Chaucer, the father of English literature, spends the opening passages of The Canterbury Tales describing the triumphant return of flowers in the springtime as a subtle allegory for the reawakening of dormant spirituality. Motherhood can be seen as another great example of the kind of metaphor that shares symbolic attributes with the current season: the fertility of the earth beneath us; the tenderness of the blossom and the ever-loving patience of the trees. After all, the sagely maternal figure is a vital component within the cycle of nature.

Charlie Pyne, the London-based bassist, vocalist and composer has been flourishing in her own way since graduating from the Guildhall in 2009. As one of the busiest professional jazz bassists in the country today, she is a figurehead of projects backed by PRS Women Make Music and has performed with Yazz Ahmed, Zoe Rahman and Nikki Isles – to say nothing of her regular educational work, which sees her play a leading role in the community-led Hitchin Music Group as well as the Camden Light Orchestra.

In 2018, she released Dancing Shadows – a thoughtful, impressionistic EP that contains examples of her inspired rhythmic and groove-based interests. On the title track, Pyne gives a captivating performance where her hushed vocalese lends an indescribable quality to the overall recording's haunting feel. Beneath its animate twilight, you can sense a fierce light yearning to be released, hatching its way out as her voice develops from mimicking her own basslines into a fully fledged instrument with a mind of its own. It seems that now, six years down the line and with a newfound sense of motherly devotion, her luminescence is ready to burn even brighter.

What sets Nature Is A Mother apart from its encouraging predecessor is Pyne’s novel contribution of catchy, time-served songs. The lineup is the same, with each player remaining deeply sympathetic to each other's contributions in a healthy sign that the ensemble is growing and reflecting as one. The biggest difference is the manner in which her solid performance is afforded through the delivery of the complicated feelings and emotions expressed in her songwriting. With her toss-up of lyrical and non-verbal singing styles, Charlie glides effortlessly between her two complementary roles. Her bass playing is grounded and on point, supplying every tune with a self-assured sense of making it back home in the end – albeit with a fortuitous, ‘keep calm, carry on’ attitude.

Her writing is diverse, highlighting influences that range from meandering folk (‘Blackberries’) to up-tempo bossa nova (‘KP’s Parrot’). This multitude of styles is executed with confident finesse, reflecting the thematic content of the album as a whole – more specifically, Pyne’s experience of womanhood. Leaving room for optimistic experiences as well as some less-than-pleasing ones, we are treated to a series of humble confessions on the subjects of maternity, feminism and, as always, nature.

We take it for granted that the seasons will change every year, and yet, they still manage to catch us out. On Nature Is A Mother, Pyne reveals the personality of someone who’d rather be surprised than static, even if that means encountering the various challenges that anyone switched on to their surroundings must face. Like the harsh winter giving way to a forgiving spring, we must learn to adapt and grow while undertaking hardships in exchange for the wisdom they impart. And, if more teachers expressed themselves with this level of openness, vulnerability and ultimate joy as Charlie does, it would come as a lesson worth receiving.