The day began with a killer sandwich in Sainsburys followed by Killer Shrimp at the Festival.
I knew the band from previous at the Corner House and they performed to the standard expected which was pretty high. Reminded me at times of an updated Mulligan Quartet with Damon Brown and Ed Jones waxing lyrical. Drummer, Luke Flowers looked and played like Phil Seaman which isn't a bad place to be..
Nicholas Meier Group varied from exciting virtuoso displays and excitng solos to bland floating, arboral themes that lost attention of this listener.
Andy Panayi Big Band. They played two sets. The first, in the afternoon, "The Greek God Suite" and the second "The British Jazz Story" both were absolutely tremendous the former surely a piece to rank alongside any extended jazz work. The fact that it was narrated with side-splitting humour by Alan Barnes made it even better.
I'm not going to even try and mention the highlights there were just too many. Paul Booth, Mark Nightingale, Barnesy, Sammy Mayne, Jim Hart (on drums) I could go on forever.
Damon Brown returned with Steve Grossman for a varied set. Lots of good solos but just a little untidiness. Not enough to spoil things.
However, good as the co-leaders were the revelation of the whole Festival came with Leon Greening's amazing piano playing. I didn't know him from Adam yet his brilliance shone in all directions from bravura runs to big fat block chords à la Milt Buckner with some modern day Garner thrown in. I'm not sure if he's an old-time modernist or a modern oldtimer but whatever, his playing was unique inasmuch as he inspired a standing ovation after one of his solos in the middle of the number. He kicked ass and how!
Trudy Kerr with Michael Garrick Trio. Trudy had a hard job following that and, to her credit, nobody left. A vocalese version of Coltrane's "A Moments Notice", and a blast on "Cloudburst" (remember Don Lang and the Frantic Five?) saw her keep the ball in play. She encored on "Lush Life" which perhaps wasn't the best choice to go out on.
Apologies if details are rather sparse but there was a lot to get through and Sunday is still to come.
Lance.
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