Nick Malcolm (trumpet), Alex
Hawkins (keyboards), Olie Brice (double bass) & Mark Whitlam (drums)
Jazz North East’s first gig of 2013 brought trumpeter
Nick Malcolm to Tyneside. It was a case of Trains, Planes and Automobiles in
getting the quartet to the Bridge Hotel. Malcolm travelled in the auto with
pianist Alex Hawkins, encountering heavy snow north of Yorkshire .
Olie Brice and his bull fiddle let the train take the strain and it was down to
the affluent drummer Mark Whitlam to take the short-hop plane journey from Bristol to Newcastle
(only joking Mark…there was a cheap flight available!). Whitlam arrived with
sticks in hand (Splinter’s house kit was at his disposal) having caused alarm
at Bristol airport
- officious types suspected he posed a terrorist threat! What to do? Whitlam
took out his brushes to demonstrate a shuffle!
The presence of Alex Hawkins suggested this would be some gig. The pianist had played several gigs on Tyneside in recent times and never failed to deliver the goods. So too Olie Brice, most recently heard at theCluny
with Ken Vandermark. The quartet performed numbers from their debut CD Glimmers and tried out some new material,
so new the sound check allowed a last minute run through of heads and codas.
The first tune, the eponymous Glimmers
introduced trumpeter Malcolm as a supremely gifted musician; confident,
accomplished, imaginative. The second number - There’s Led in Their Pencils - pointed to a lineage many a jazz fan
would have got, no problem. My scribbled notes read Monkish. Dazzling playing, in and out of tempi, the swinging pulse
of Brice (outstanding), the revelatory drumming of Whitlam and the prodigiously
talented Hawkins playing around with a quirky, retro Fender Rhodes sound!
Bandleader Nick Malcolm is a trumpet player for the twenty first century fully
conversant with the post war history of his instrument. Close your eyes and
this was Dizzy, Freddie and Miles. Ferocious volleys, squeezed quarter notes.
Wow! Another Bridge premièred piece - Its
Alright We’re Going to the Zoo – unleashed mighty solos and after two sets
a third set, a lock-in and more wonderful contemporary jazz would have been
paradise. The band’s second CD release should be out sometime later this year.
A tour will follow and a Tyneside date must surely be on the itinerary. Be
there
The presence of Alex Hawkins suggested this would be some gig. The pianist had played several gigs on Tyneside in recent times and never failed to deliver the goods. So too Olie Brice, most recently heard at the
Russell.
2 comments :
Olie Brice Tweeted: Great review of the Nick Malcolm Quartet in Newcastle
Martin Pine Tweeted: A really great jazz blog from the north east.
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