01/10/2008 Mark Norton, MCPS

Mark Norton, MCPS

“It’s important for sax players to achieve a unique sound. Rob’s rich tone on tenor is perfectly complimented by the ethereal sweetness of his flute playing, and his soprano work is beautifully assured on this most stubborn of the saxes - his sound is very definitely his own”

08/04/2008 Robert Shore

Rob Lavers - Small Creature
Review Jazz Wise April 2008 ***
Robert Shore

Lavers' second album as a leader is a showcase for his impressive talents both as multi-instrumentalist and as a composer.
The former young jazz musician of the year, runner up went to art school and appropriately enough his writing has a certain painterly quality, with the leaders soloing adding fine impressionistic detail to expansive self-penned landscape-style sketches like the opener, 'The Snolly Guster'. But above all small creature demonstrates Lavers' versatility from the churning swing of 'Mask' to the emotive, tumbling tumult of 'Missing the World' or the cocktail-bar bop of 'Skoochin for Skach'.

The more he and his band members stretch their sound palette, the more they engage: 'Song for Baudelaire' features a propulsive, stuttering opening riff from the rhythm section that contrasts effectively with Lavers' sinuously smooth-flowing sax part, while the martial snap of Laurent Robin's snare and Jamil Sheriff's hypnotic driving piano part, repeat the trick on the closer, 'Nimes'.

01/09/2006 Tim Stenhouse -JazzWise, Live Review Manchester Jazz Festival

"The post-bop Rob Lavers Quartet were a revelation, conjuring up a late 1960's session from Joe Henderson, they show great promise. "

01/07/2005 Kenny Mathieson - JazzWise

"Lavers comes across as a strong performer on both tenor and soprano, and the interplay between the musicians has a nicely focused sense of mutual understanding. "

14/03/2005 Nick Jones, Leicester Mercury

"The first thing I notice about Rob Lavers is his beautiful tone on soprano saxophone... This is a band with a great sense of ensemble and an individual sound"