A breath of fresh air blew through the northeast jazz scene last night - sometimes a zephyr of haunting harmonies from a bowed bass and Rhodes piano, then whisked up to a cyclonic spiral of gale force Strat - through The Rat - vying with the tenor 'til at last, together in a screaming high speed gust, they blew the hat off the cat! Thank God the castle was built on Drummer Rock - no name running through these sticks, just a Biggles scarf strafed by a funky wind. Andy Champion's V-tet, ACV, 1st public offering, and what an offering it was, from 'Quins' Adrian Tillbrook (drums), Paul Edis (keyboards), Graeme Wilson (saxes), Mark Williams (guitars) and the man himself on double bass.
This was high jazz with altitude, aye, altitude! mostly Andy's own compositions, with the exception of Hackensack so beautifully, Monkishly fragmented you could feel the master's presence. Cryptic titles like, 'A Line Made by Walking', 'You add to my Stress', 'Without Bones' didn't disappoint, my personal favourite being what I can only describe, pretentiously, as a 3rd Stream tone poem, 'And You Do' - starting out as a Celtic prayer - bass and keyboards whispering in the misty dawn, asking forgiveness for the pitched battle to come, where Strat axe and tenor sax slice the air, scream blue murder and then, it's all over - the reprised lament takes us from the reddened field to a higher place: The Head of Steam opposite the Central Station to drink to ACV's further triumphs.
Only one word for this performance: 'Magic Darts'!
(For guitar anoraks looking at the photo, to let the Strat cool down, Mark picked up an 81 Gibson 347 for several numbers)
(Photo - thanks to Hilary Gilby)
(Door - thanks to Zoe!)
George M.
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