Kairos 4tet enter the studio next month to record their first album since signing to Naim, the label that already has hit bands the Neil Cowley Trio and Get the Blessing on its books. Saxophonist Adam Waldmann, above right, dropped the news to his fans in a new year newsletter that the band would be holing up at Real World studios early next month. That’s the Wiltshire recording facility where the Neil Cowley Trio recorded their debut Displaced. While Kairos had a fairly quiet 2012, partly through an injury sustained by Waldmann that kept the band off the road, the quartet with Waldmann joined by Phronesis’ Jasper Høiby and Ivo Neame, plus Dice Factory’s Jon Scott, won the MOBO for best jazz act the previous year following the release of their acclaimed album Statement of Intent, did appear to play a high profile London Jazz Festival gig in Kings Place where they showcased their single ‘Song for the Open Road’ featuring soul legend Omar who joined the band onstage as part of the Jazz in the New Europe strand. Kairos first emerged in 2010 with their debut album Kairos Moment, although Neame did not come on board until Statement of Intent replacing Rob Barron. Emilia Mårtensson’s vocals added a certain something on the last record as well as on the band’s debut, and Kairos manage the difficult feat of combining a vocal presence with a post-jazz feel, allowing jagged frequently metrically advanced solo lines to mesh intuitively with the often languorous delivery of the UK-based Swedish singer yet retaining an improvising credibility at its core.
Wednesday 9 January update: Naim Jazz label boss Simon Drake says: “Adam and I have wanted to work together for a long time, and I am delighted that everything is falling into place for Naim Jazz Records to release Kairos 4tet’s third album. Kairos are a supremely talented group, who inhabit their own space at the forefront of new British jazz. They work extremely hard and I hope we can help them build on their audience in the UK and beyond. They certainly deserve it!" SG

Kairos 4tet top. Photo: Paul Medley