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Stationary is now available on the iTunes Music Store. We also have T-shirts available, please contact me for details.
Luke has been playing the piano since 1983. Amongst others he has worked with the Daytime Frequency, Phil Gould, Paul Grabowsky, Leonard and Slava Grigoryan, Doug Parkinson, and the Melbourne Symphony. He was a finalist in the 2001 and 2004 Montreux Jazz Solo Piano Competitions and has studied with Paul Bley, Donna Coleman and Fred Hersch, as a recipient of the 2001 Keith and Elisabeth Murdoch Travelling Fellowship. In 2007 Luke participated in the Banff International Workshop in Jazz and Creative Music.
Farrugia Grigoryan Howard Robertson - Stationary (Which Way Music WWM003, distributed in Australia by Fuse Music Group)
Review by Jesse Shrock, Beat Magazine, 10 October 2007
FGHR stands for Darryn Farrugia (Drums & Percussion), Leonard Grigoryan (Guitar), Luke Howard (Piano), and Ben Robertson (Double Bass), and their all-instrumental debut Stationary is a rare treat indeed – a bunch of accomplished jazz musicians focusing intently on the beauty of the song.
The opening instrumental version of Missy Higgins’ All For Believing gives some indication of what to expect; not exactly jazz, but more finessed than pop. Maybe it’s just about what feels good… Certainly, the players seem to be having a ball with Leia, which breezes from a bluesy intro into a percussive Latin groove.
Stationary isn’t a collection of frivolous jam-outs, but songs of genuine emotion. Subtle emotion, to be sure, (as only musicians with as finely cultivated a musical vocabulary as FGHR can pull off) but emotion nonetheless, the most dominant being hopefulness. While the drowsy Out Of Darkness seems to speak of a newly and gradually dawning hope, Red Red Road bounces along with a feeling of indomitable optimism.
Without exception, Stationary’s arrangements sparkle with intelligence and elegance, but never pretentiousness. Though The Eyes Have It is one of several featured examples of an impeccably cool jazz feel that is as much about the notes that aren’t played as those that are, Folksong is two minutes of eerily beautiful melody, wisely left to its flawless simplicity.
Stationary is the perfect Sunday morning record. Sit in the sunlight, open a good book and let a little grace flow into your ears and into your life.
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