Karen Sharp Quartet. Karen Sharp(ten), Nikki Iles (pno), Dave Green (bs), Steve Brown (dms).
You couldn't get a much better rhythm section than this nor could you find a better tenor player.
Booting the set off with Cole Porter's Get Out of Town Karen blew chorus after chorus each one building on the one preceding. This was Zoot, Dexter, Wardell parcelled up in the trim shape of one of the UK's finest and youngest tenor players Get out of town? nobody was going to leave whilst this was going on! Getz's The Dolphin was another piece de resistance that our girl took in her stride - I'm in love again!
Perched on the piano stool Nikki Iles also proved that you don't have to be a man to be a jazz master (or should that be mistress?) whatever the girls have dominated today so far - Andrea, Karen, Nikki... Of course they were ably helped on their way by Dave Green, whom Alan Barnes described as 'The Rolls-Royce of bass players and he certainly drove things along as did the ever smiling Steve Brown - I've never known anyone so happy in his work!
All I can say to sum up this set is 'Wow!'
Julian Arguelles (ten), and Brian Kellock (pno). An interesting pairing of an introvert and an extrovert as the duo opened up with a spontaneous improv in C that charged ahead like two high speed trains on a collision course and just avoiding disaster by a split-second. This was another session where the wowability factor was high!
A mix of standards - They Say That Falling in Love is Wonderful, Nancy etc with a few forearm smashes from Mr Kellock that surely would have brought a lesser piano to it's knees but the Bosendorfer Grand withstood the onslaught and, perhaps as an act of contrition, Brian atoned with some sensitive exploratory passages. It's Always You had Arguelles doing the sensitivity bit as well as interacting perfectly with the pianist. Two complete opposites blending like coffee and cream.
Dizzy's Bebop was perhaps the pinnacle played at tempo de breakneck it soared, it scored and the crowd roared.
Martin Taylor - The Spirit of Django. Martin Taylor (lead guitar), John Goldie (rhythm guitar), Alan Barnes (clt/sop), Jack Emblow (acc), James Taylor (perc), Terry Gregory (bs), Alison Burns (vcl).
This was indeed Django in spirit without being a direct copy. Mainly originals by Martin as well as a stomping Honeysuckle Rose the group swung along nicely. Apart from Martin's virtuosic guitar playing and some stellar work by Alan Barnes on clarinet and soprano one of the most impressive performances was by Jack Emblow. Now 80 year old there was nothing 'simple' about his playing he's one of those rare musicians who can turn the accordion into a jazz voice.
Talking jazz voices, Alison Burns looked and sounded every inch - sorry centimetre - a chanteuse in some café on the Left Bank. Her La Mer was la créme.
Tres Bon!
Lance.
Lance.
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