Mark McKnight Organ Quartet featuring Will Vinson November 8, 2009
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Recital Room, City Halls, Thursday 5th November
Whether it was the rival attraction of the Portico Quartet elsewhere in town, Guy Fawkes Night, a Celtic European game being shown live on TV in some pubs, or winter having well and truly started this week, I don’t know, but the attendance at this concert was woefully poor. But if you like jazz and weren’t there, you missed out.
The line-up was:
- Mark McKnight guitar. He’d a lovely clean sound: from the lightly-amplified Joe Pass / Jim Hall school, but making subtle use of effect pedals from time to time.
- Will Vinson alto. One of the most expressive-sounding young players I’ve heard for a long time.
I thought there was the odd hint of Johnny Hodges in some of his playing, although overall he didn’t sound like Hodges at all - James Maddren drums.
- Ross Stanley Hammond organ.
They were all very good individually, particularly McKnight and Vinson, but what they excelled at was playing as a group: this wasn’t just four guys on stage at the same time, it was a band. Three passages exemplified this: Maddren’s drum solo which built from nothing over repeated figures from the band during the coda to one piece in the first half; the long drum and alto duet in one piece in the second half; and McKnight and Vinson playing guitar and alto solos in tandem towards the end of the set.
If I’m vague about the titles of the pieces, it’s because McKnight didn’t use a mic when speaking to the audience, and I couldn’t always make out what he was saying. They played three standards: an excellent “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered”; “Solar”; and one of those Charlie Parker tunes whose name always eludes me. The rest of the set was McKnight originals.
I didn’t make a conscious decision to go to this rather than the Portico Quartet. I’d simply bought my ticket for this before discovering the other gig was on. But based on Rob Adams’ review of the Portico Quartet’s Edinburgh concert, I seem to have made the right decision. He was at this one too, but I haven’t seen his review yet. Euphbass certainly enjoyed it.
Alyn Cosker: Lyn’s Une November 4, 2009
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This is the debut album as leader from drummer Cosker, although he’s already got several recordings as a sideman under his belt. It’s largely Scofield-y jazz-rock, with Cosker’s regular trio of Ross Hamilton (electric bass) and David Dunsmuir (guitar) frequently augmented by various permutations of Tommy Smith and Paul Towndrow (saxes), Ryan Quigley (trumpet), Jason Rebello (piano) and Maureen McMullan (vocals).
It suffers slightly from the debut album syndrome of trying to show off too wide a range of styles: there are several pieces with a piano- rather than guitar-based sound which break the flow a bit (although they’re excellent in themselves). But there’s plenty to enjoy, not least the drumming.
The title, incidentally, is apparently a typo for “Alyn’s Tune”.
John Fordham’s review in The Guardian.
The Necessity of Pluripresence* October 28, 2009
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There are a few interesting gigs coming up in the next week or so. Unfortunately, to get to all of them you’ll have to master the art of being in two places at the same time.
The RSAMD is putting on two concerts featuring the RSAMD Jazz Ensemble with guests.
On Thursday 29th they are joined by trumpeter American trumpeter Marvin Stamm. Stamm’s an unfamilar name to me, but he’s got a solid track record stretching back to the sixties. He’s been a member of the Stan Kenton, Thad Jones-Mel Lewis and George Gruntz bands as well as having an established career as a session player.
On Tuesday 3rd November, they are performing with altoist Nigel Hitchcock and trumpeter Ryan Quigley. According to the brochure with came out a few months ago, American trumpeter Wayne Bergeron was to have been the guest soloist, but this seems to have changed, at least according to the RSAMD web site.
On Thursday 5th, you’ve a dilemma.
- The Portico Quartet, with their unusual soprano sax, bass and two hang line-up are playing at the Arches, supported by the pop band Sweet Billy Pilgrim (presumably Kurt Vonnegut fans). The concert is being put on by the Arches themselves, rather than by one of the regular local jazz promoters. It will be interesting to see how the audience at this differs in size and in age and gender from the audience at a “normal” jazz concert at one of the city’s usual jazz venues. Doors open at 7.30pm.
- Half an hour later and half a mile away, Belfast guitarist Mark McKnight is playing at the City Halls Recital Room, leading a quartet of Ross Stanley on organ, Will Vinson on sax, and James Maddren on drums. McKnight and Vinson have both played Glasgow fairly recently, with Konrad Wiszniewski and Jonathan Kreisberg respectively, and are well worth hearing.
There are also a couple of decent-looking afternoon pub gigs on at the weekend. Guitarist Alan Sweeney’s Quintet is playing Brel on Saturday, starting at 3pm, and the Strathclyde Youth Jazz Orchestra have their monthly residency at West on Sunday, starting at 2pm. Admission to these is free, although obviously it’s good manners to buy some beer or soft drinks.
*Today’s big word. It means “Presence in more than one place at the same time”, according to Collins English Diction
Tom Bancroft Orchestro Interrupto: The Ballad of Linda and Crawford October 25, 2009
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In 2004, Tom Bancroft’s big band, Orchestro Interrupto, played a series of concerts with special guest Geri Allen on piano. This album is a belated release of material performed on that tour: it was recorded in 2005 but only released a couple of months ago.
Slightly disappointingly, Geri Allen doesn’t play on the CD. But it’s only a slight disappointment, as her place is taken by Chick Lyall who handles the role very well indeed. I don’t know how much of the piano part was written in advance, how much was improvised by Lyall, or how much he’s trying to recreate what Allen played, but the results are excellent. However it was done, he sounds like the right pianist for this music, and the piano part, a mixture of straight jazz and more classically-tinged passages, sounds just right for him.
He’s not the only soloist, though. Laura MacDonald is on particularly good form on alto: like Lyall, she seems exactly the right player for this music. Dutch trombonist Joost Buis is a new name to me, but he too is excellent, producing some splendidly Ellingtonian playing on the closing “First Steps Last Steps”. Other solos come from John Telfer (baritone), Colin Steele (trumpet), Phil Bancroft (saxes), Mischa Kool (bass – and what a great name!), Kevin MacKenzie (guitar), and Tom Bancroft himself on drums.
Highlights of the album, for me, are “Linda and Crawford’s Theme”, where sinister dark orchestral sounds well up behind and eventually overwhelm a lyrical piano theme, and the call and response section between the various soloists and the full band towards the end of “Ornate Bessie”.
In the past, I felt that Tom Bancroft’s work with large ensembles suffered from the sporadic nature of such projects (as hinted at by the name of the band). They had lots of good ideas, but they didn’t all come off. It sounded like the early draft of something very good, rather than the finished article. The material here sounds fully played in, though. It’s a big step forward from his earlier big band release “Pieology”. There are a fair number of big bands in Scotland today, but Orchestro Interrupto is, as far as I know, the only one playing nothing but original compositions. Let’s hope the favourable reviews this CD has been getting make it easier for Tom Bancroft to get a big band together on a semi-permanent basis.
Two Festivals: Lockerbie and Skye October 20, 2009
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There are a couple of interesting jazz festivals on in Scotland this weekend. They both run from Friday 23rd to Sunday 25th.
Lockerbie
The Lockerbie Festival, which started in 2006, has now established itself on the Scottish jazz scene.
My pick of this year’s concerts would be:
- Gigs by Tony Coe, one of the greatest UK reed players, who’s capable of playing straightahead swing, free improvisation, and anything in between. He plays in the opening gala concert on Friday, and in a quartet with American pianist Bill Carrothers the next day.
- Three shows by the aforementioned Bill Carrothers, a marvellously lyrical pianist with a gift for digging up old tunes and doing something inventive and contemporary with them. On Saturday, he’s doing a trio set at lunchtime and an early evening quartet set with Tony Coe; on Sunday he’s playing in a quartet with Scott Hamilton.
- A gala opening-night concert in the Town Hall, where Tina May and American trumpeter and singer Duke Hietger will be performing a set based on the Ella Fitzgerald – Louis Armstrong collaborations of the fifties. They’re backed by a band which includes Tony Coe on clarinet and Ronnie Rae on bass. The support acts are Rossano Sportiello playing stride and swing piano, and Tipitina playing New Orleans-style rhythm and blues.
Scott Hamilton and Duke Heitger pop up in a selection of different line-ups across the weekend, the Temperance Seven play the main Saturday night concert, and Paul Towndrow plays a lunchtime Sunday show in a band lead by Dumfries drummer John Lowrie.
Full details of these and the other concerts on the Lockerbie Jazz Festival site.
Skye
This is a new event to me, although it’s apparently been going since 2007. Nigel Hitchcock’s Quartet, Sophie Bancroft, the Rhythm Kings, and Gina Rae with the Euan Burton Trio are all playing a series of gigs across the island between Friday and Sunday, ending up with a Sunday night jam session in the Royal Hotel in Portree. Details on the Skye Jazz Festival web site.
