David Gray (tmb); Tim Bloomer (gtr); Dominic Snaith (keys); Katie Trigger (bs); Robbie Houston (dms).(Review by Lance.)
You go into a bar - cocktails 2 for the price of 1. It's a young trendy place. There's a band playing - cool, groovy but, 'alf a mo, the front man's playing trombone! Trombone, I ask you? But, tell you what, he can 'play that thing'!
Yes, young Master Gray has moved on from his first tentative appearance at the Jazz Café. Since then he has graduated by way of the band that once was Horn Dogs - now Northern Monkeys or something - to the level of a soloist capable of holding his own as the lone frontman at the Young Jazz Collective's Hoochie Jam Session.
Nothing pretentious (thank goodness!) just good old jam session blowing.
Watermelon Man; Mercy, Mercy, Mercy; a funky Stevie Wonder song and Jaco's legacy - The Chicken - were some of the numbers that made this a storming first set.
Listening to David blast (and I use the word advisedly without any disrespect) it was like a lesson in the history of Slideology. Gray doesn't do Green (Benny or Urbie) he comes from Ory, Clyde Bernhardt and Jimmy Knepper to Dennis Rollins with maybe a little Brian Chester on the side.
Not that this was a one man show - far from it. Tim Bloomer is a jazz rock guitarist who can thrash and shred with the best but also has a lyrical side which was somewhat hidden tonight.
On bass guitar, lovely Katie Trigger just laid back and let the riff's hang out. Melodic and harmonically rich Katie is a driver not a passenger. Robbie kept them up to scratch and Dominic played some interesting keyboard - not least when in B3 mode.
Sadly, the young trombonist didn't return for the second set and the rock element took over from the jazz side with Tim Creaming it a la Clapton and Co. Still great but I did miss a horn out front just for variety.
I don't know what the average age was but I'd guess they were in the lower twenties which is encouraging.
Nice one. It's a shame the jazz community still opts away from this venue but then again, they seem to opt away from most venues particularly when the local millionaires are kicking the pigskin around!
Photos.
Lance.
I don't know what the average age was but I'd guess they were in the lower twenties which is encouraging.
Nice one. It's a shame the jazz community still opts away from this venue but then again, they seem to opt away from most venues particularly when the local millionaires are kicking the pigskin around!
Photos.
Lance.
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