PG3 plus guests @ Jazz Café (Thursday 1 March)

Peter Gilligan (pno), Paul Grainger (bs), Daniel Reed (dms) plus Dai Pritchard (alto sax), Marizio Minardi (sop. sax, piano), Richard Henry (bass tmb), Lindsay Hannon (vcl), Adrian Lukis (vcl), ?(vcl), ??(vcl)

Alan Law once began an item on this blog (about Lennart Anderson dropping into the Jazz Café and blowing up a storm) with the words “hope you don’t mind me breaking convention, but I need to review my own gig!!!, but its not about me!”.  I suspect that Alan’s writing is of a higher quality (as is his playing) but I’m driven by similar feelings to do the same.

Last night at the Café, Gilligan was displaying a deft touch during a first set of soft, tender ballads with sensitive support from drummer Dan Reid (whose playing seems to unveil ever more depth and colour each time he sits behind the kit).  During the break the company and musicians of the RSC arrived and the roof came off during the next set.  The thespians in the audience were up for a good time and everyone who took the stand responded.

Richard Henry (Back to Basie Orchestra/ Carla Bley/ Julian Joseph big bands) and Marizio Minardi (Brandon Allen/Quentin Collins) weaved magic over How Insensitive.  Dai Pritchard (formerly Loose Tubes, currently Pasadena Roof Orchestra) unleashed his funky side over Summertime and Cantaloupe Island.  The personnel changed – and tunes came – thick and fast, all anchored by Pete Gilligan's solid playing.  At one point the three horns together delivered a very spirited All the Things You Are (I seem to recall) in which their lines were so together it sounded like one musician.  

Lindsay Hannon arrived at around 11 (“I just called in for five minutes on my way home”) and sang – amongst others – My Funny Valentine.  During Marizio’s solo Richard and Pete picked up on rhythmic changes in each others playing and the rhythm section followed into a couple of choruses on a ska beat before returning to the original feel for Lindsay’s last chorus.  A number of singers from the assembled company (sorry my hands were full of double bass so I couldn’t note names) sang lovely versions of a number of standards, including a great swinging/shuffle around God Bless the Child.  

Later Adrian Lukis sang Satin Doll with a delivery that Rex Harrison would have been proud of.

If I’ve forgotten anything or anyone, please accept my apologies. It was a blistering, lively, exciting night that ended with an appropriate finale that involved the entire audience dancing whilst the horns, Lindsay (whose five minutes had extended to about four and a half hours) and the rhythm section, traded on a funk jam.  Some days I just feel very lucky to be in the right place at the right time – and this was one of them.
Photos by Kaveh.

Paul Grainger.