Gosh keeping to this idea of writing up all the gigs I go to this year is proving more difficult than I thought. Life is conspiring a little bit to get in my way. But I shall push on through and make an effort to keep up - before I go to any more gigs and get any more behind....
Saturday 20th April.
Trish Clowes Quintet at King's Place.
I was feeling pretty poorly and groggy at this one. So my memories are a little bit hazy.
After the GMF weekend I walked into King's Place and immediately had a big grin on my face. I love this place. Thank goodness for that long boozy lunch in The Rotunda a couple of years ago that introduced this to me.
What really stood out for me was the variety of different feels and textures in the compositions. From lyrical to funky to delightfully disjointed shifting across the beat. Once again James Maddren impressed me with his combination of intricacy and subtlety. This is clever, supportive drumming that doesn't overwhelm or shout unless the spotlight is upon it.
Wednesday 1st May
Sam Crowe Quintet at The Vortex
There's nothing quite like turning up at a gig, with your Kindle charged and ready for the interims, to be met by the smiling faces of friends and a good piano chinwag between serious adult learners.
The overall feeling of Crowe's music seems to me to be meditative. Even when it takes on darker, funkier, hues - it still had me thinking of lying on a shingle beach, sun warm stone in either hand. Or unwinding (literally) in some Somerset field while everyone else appeared to be dancing on the ceiling.*
Friday 3rd May
Grooveyard & Money Jungle at the Con Cellar
Part of the Green Chimneys Festival
An excellent start to the Bank Holiday Weekend.
Grooveyard set off at a terrific lick and didn't let up. Not even on the ballads. Not sure I've ever heard so many notes played over a slow pulse before. Fantastic stuff but I was ready for something a little mellower in the second half. And Money Jungle didn't disappoint. Nice to see a bunch of top notch young players, composers and band-leaders taking on some Monk, Mingus and Ellington tunes. No seriously, I had vaguely been beginning to wonder if amid the abundance of new composing in the contemporary scene anyone ever did "standards". They do. And they do them well.
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*Somebody may have been selling skunk brandy-snaps at the particular festival involved.
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