Monthly Archives: February 2010

A colour that was once unfashionable

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Grey shoes – in those two words it was once possible to both identify a nuance of fashion favoured by the dullest of middle managers and cheap sofa salesmen, and simultaneously damn this sartorial crime. Since then, grey – or perhaps we should now call it granite? or gunmetal? – has been rehabilitated, as all things are in the end in fashion, to become a rather chic shade.

Which brings us to the Greyish Quartet: David Grey (no, not that one; this one) plays piano, with Amy Fletcher on woodwinds, Nick Jurd on double bass and Jim Bashford on drums. There is nothing grey (in the old sense) about them – these are young and very cool musicians, and Grey works in some hip-hop and classical influences into his jazz. The core trio of Grey, Jurd and Bashford are playing this evening at The Hare & Hounds, the vibrant music pub in Kings Heath, Birmingham B14. Joining them is, we are promised, a very special guest.

It all starts at 7.45pm and tickets are £5 (£3 concessions).

Gig review: Kit Downes Trio

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(Picture: Garry Corbett)

Foyer Bar, Symphony Hall, Birmingham UK
19-02-10
I call it “being in the zone”. It’s that place where the musicians achieve that heightened sense of creativity, where they are all hearing each other with a kind of super-sensitivity, and finding that somehow the technique they have worked for years and years to acquire suddenly, somehow becomes transparent, leaving them to fly in the music and in the moment.

It’s not an easy thing to achieve, and I have been at gigs by extremely accomplished musicians who have never quite got into that zone the whole evening; I have heard some very good musicians who have never, to my ears, or when I have been present, reached it.

But the really intuitive, the ones who dig deep every time they play, grow to find the zone more easily (though that is a relative word in this context), and get into it more often. Kit Downes is one of these.

But even for such gifted musicians, it rarely happens straight away – they need to work towards it as the gig progresses. It takes patience, and perseverance, and a certain confidence, the confidence to throw oneself out of the “plane” of safe improvisation within the chords and harmonic structure and spread your arms in a joyous, yet controlled, freefall. And it provides for the step change where the listeners don’t just have a nice time but in some subtle but crucial way have their lives changed.

The Kit Downes Trio reached it, for me as they moved from Tambourine, a tune inspired by Keith Jarrett and containing a lot of his almost rocking, groove-driven forward movement, to the pretty standard ballad which closed the first set. Downes hit one of his virtuoso right hand passages, his left hovering unused above the keys as he wove ever more glorious patterns up and down, in and out of the tune, the delight of creation driving the ideas.

The band – Downes on piano, Calum Gourlay on double bass, and Dave Smith on drums – stayed at that level for the whole of the second half. They opened it with the title track of the yet to be recorded second trio disc, The View, followed with a great, extended Thelonious Monk tune (into which, at one point, Downes managed to throw in a quote of Dizzy Gillespie’s Salt Peanuts), and then moved onto the opener from the trio’s Golden disc, Jump Minzi Jump, before ending with another tune from the album, the exquisite and strangely timeless Homely.

I had been looking forward to hearing the trio from the recording, and was about to be disappointed when James Maddren was not behind the drums, a disappointment immediately dispelled by the fact that Smith was in his place. While Gourlay played the trusty bass fulcrum in the centre, Downes and Smith had a whale of a time speeding and slowing in tight formation in Jump… and constantly swapping accent ideas. Smith plays with such subtlety, even making sure to damp the resonance of his snare at just the right time while in the middle of a complex pattern around the whole kit.

Free and in a foyer, this was a gig of the year so far, and one that will not easily be bettered, whether in concert hall or club, whether for £10 or £50… A good crowd was there to reap the benefit – a lot of hearts were lifted and minds stimulated; a lot of faces were smiling.

Go here for more of Garry Corbett’s pics of the gig.

Three is the magic number

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The Gwilym Simcock Trio

After a magical gig yesterday early evening from the Kit Downes Trio in the Symphony Hall foyer bar, tonight it’s the turn of another fine piano trio, The Gwilym Simcock Trio, at The Edge, the arts centre in Much Wenlock.

Simcock is a bit further down the road to international recognition than Downes, and this trio, with double bassist Yuri Goloubev and drummer James Maddren, is his best band. They have a superb new album out, Blues Vignette, on the Basho label.

The Edge is a lovely, intimate venue, but it fills up quickly so don’t delay if you want to go. The concert starts at 8pm, tickets are £12/£10, and there is more information and the chance to book by calling 01952 728509 or emailing manager@edgeartscentre.co.uk

The number three is also magical at Stratford Jazz tomorrow, but this time the instrumentation is different. Leading from the drum chair is Asaf Sirkis, on bass is Yaron Stavi and on guitar is Tassos Spiliotopoulas. Their music takes as much inspiration from progressive rock and world music as it does from jazz, and excitement is the order of the day.

Stratford Jazz meets every Sunday at The Chapel, No 1 Shakespeare Street, Stratford-upon-Avon. It starts at 8pm and tickets are £6 on the door. More at www.stratfordjazz.org.uk

Rock influences abound, too, in the music of another threesome: Trio VD. Nurtured in the Leeds jazz scene and now sounding like a monster on the rampage, the band is Christophe de Bezenac on saxophone, Chris Sharkey on guitar and Chris Bussey on drums. This is a Jazz Club gig, promoted by Birmingham Jazz, it is in The Rainbow Courtyard in Digbeth on Wednesday from 9pm and tickets are £4 on the door. More info at www.birminghamjazz.co.uk

Disc of the day: 19-02-10

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Dok Wallach: Live In Lisbon (Jazzwerkstatt 076)
Nope, Dok Wallach isn’t a person but a Berlin-based band: Michael Thieke on alto saxophone and clarinets, Daniel Erdmann on tenor, Johannes Fink on bass and Heinrich Kobberling on drums.

This disc, recorded at Hot Clube de Portugal in Lisbon, has the quartet dedicating themselves to the music of Charles Mingus, a laudable thing to do. Even more laudable is that they take, as liner note writer Bert Noglik observes, the Steve Lacy principle of exploring the music of a master in a thoroughly personal and free manner. This is certainly no heritage project, and the band play fast and loose with montages from Tijuana Moods and Ah Um, and specific Mingus tunes like Self Portrait in Three Colors and Pithencanthropus Erectus.

Having said that, the pull and push of a characteristic Mingus bass pulse can be heard throughout, and the the two saxophonists take on those Mingus principles of conversation and debate in simultaneous, interactive soloing. Erdmann has a particularly gruff and gritty tone and an equally rough improvisational style. Thieke is sometimes sweeter of tone on clarinet but no less adventurous in style, and when he wants to, he can build his alto up into a pretty shrieking monster.

Kobberling has a less pushy style than Dannie Richmond, but he can still chatter that hi-hat when he wants to, while Fink is the solid fulcrum and pushing rhythm-driver.

A strong set from a hard-working, intelligent and cohesive band. A reminder, too, of what a bottomless pit of potential there is in the music of Charles Mingus.

Disc of the day: 18-02-10

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Nils Petter Molvaer: Hamada (Sula/Emarcy 602527020419)
Apparently the title is also a geological term for a stone or rock desert with little or no sand. A little unforgiving and uncomfortable, then?

There has certainly always been something distinctly edgy about the Norwegian nu-jazzer’s highly atmospheric trumpet and electronic soundscapes. With this latest disc, and with help from Auden Kleive on drums and Eivind Aarset on guitar, plus Jan Bang on live sampling and Auden Erlien on bass, NPM certainly enters some darker territory at times. But there is also still lots of the reflective, ultra cool Molvaer still present, too.

Icy Altitude might have the spacious, cool vibe that its title suggests, but Friction turns up the heat with Kleive creating a storm of both acoustic and electronic drums. Monocline includes samples of what sound like African marketplace sounds, while Cruel Altitude again feeds on drums from deep inside the mix (this one has the spatial illusion of those opera house stages that seem to reach far back to infinity) while also featuring some of Molvaer’s most beautiful and heartfelt playing, and an almost Medieval guitar wash, before the acoustic drums erupt and the guitar goes heavy metal, taking the trumpet along to the dark side.

Nils Petter Molvaer, with Auden Kleive and Stian Westerhus standing in on guitar, will be playing some of this music live at the Hare & Hounds in Kings Heath, Birmingham, on Friday 26 February, from 8.30pm. It’s a Birmingham Jazz promotion with support from the Norwegian Embassy. Tickets are £10 and available from Polar Bear Records, the great little independent record shop just round the corner from the Hare & Hounds in York Road. Or call the shop on 0121 441 5202. Otherwise, take your chances and hope there are still some on the door. It starts at 8.30pm.