Graeme Wilson (tenor saxophone), Paul
Edis (keyboards), Andy Champion (double bass) & Adam Sinclair (drums)
(Review by Russell)
The
Graeme Wilson Quartet’s debut gig at the Central Bar in October of last year
was such a success that it was just a matter of time until there was another
outing. Wilson ’s talents as a composer made the
band an ideal choice for a Schmazz @ the Cluny Wilson
Street of Furs, Pontoon
(a commission from the Harbour Association of Mull), Searchlight Nevada, one winner after another. The latter number
was, perhaps, the first set highlight. Imagine John Coltrane driving through
the night to his next engagement. Tyner, Jones and Garrison his companions.
Imagine Trane getting lost in the desert. This was majestic tenor playing from
Wilson, his band mates Paul Edis (keyboards), Andy Champion (double bass) and
drummer Adam Sinclair (hear that hi-hat!) well up to the mark and then some!
Offissa Pupp - playful, funkin’ fun - offered a marked contrast
to the Wilson/Trane intensity reverberating in our heads. The first set swung
out with The New Wallaw, a Wilson composition inspired by a visit to a shamefully neglected, crumbling Art Deco
cinema in the south east Northumberland town of Blyth
The
second set proved to be just as good as the first. Remara (first heard on Tyneside in an arrangement by John Warren’s
Splinter Group), The Sycamore, a
ballad referencing Blyth’s lost picture palace, A Toe of Fudge, with constantly shifting rhythms expertly
negotiated by the quartet and Pleasureland
(Wilson mentions Arbroath, the audience laughs) brought us to the end.
Well, not quite. The Schmazz crowd wanted more and they got it. Honolulus dazzled with brilliant playing
all round. A cracking band deserving of wider recognition.
Russell.
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