Penguin Café: Arthur Jeffes (pno/uke/harmonium); Des Murphy (uke); Andy Waterworth (bs); Rebecca Waterworth (cello); Darren Berry (vln); Vince Greene (vla); Neil Codling (pno/uke/cuatro/gtr); Tom Chichester-Clark (harm/uke); Cass Browne, Pete Radcliffe (perc.) + Kathyrn Tickell (vln/North. pipes).
Penguin Cafe are quite an amazing band - impossible to categorise but a lot of fun. It is folk but from very divers sources - Irish, Scottish even Nashville. Throw a suggestion of Hawaiian into the mix, add a touch of czardas and you've just about got it.
Okay so it ain't jazz but it is scintillating and very infectious music played by a talented crew. And as if that weren't enough we had the icing on the cake in the form of Kathryn Tickell who joined Berry and Greene for a frantic number called Swinging The Cat! The two fiddles and viola swung this cat way beyond RSPCA guidelines.
Kathryn stayed with it and later played her beloved Northumbrian Pipes on a delightful piece - Organa. This had some lovely changes.
Most of the tunes were written by Arthur Jeffes' father Simon and his son did him proud.
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Portico Quartet: Duncan Bellamy (dms/elect); Jack Wyllie (ten/sax/elect/pno); Milo Fitzpatrick (bs/elect); Nick Mulvey (hang drums).
The Portico Quartet opened the concert with a doom laden set from the darker side of jazz. Intense, brooding, probing it had a sinister beauty to it that occasionally erupted into moments of freneticism. Saxist Wyllie played tenor and curved soprano. His tone light - almost Getzian - until the tension mounted whereupon he unleashed a ferocity that took him to the edge of sanity. Beneath it all various electronic loops that I won't attempt to explain circulated around them adding to the esoteric nature of the music.
Lance.
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