Lucian Ban & Mat Maneri @ The Recital Room, Newcastle University. May 23, 2013

(Review by Russell)

Pianist Lucian Ban and viola virtuoso Mat Maneri, on a short British tour to promote their new ECM release Transylvanian Concert (ECM 2313), were greeted by glowering rain clouds on arrival in Newcastle. 

The Recital Room in Armstrong Building, Newcastle University, elevates the Lit & Phil’s intimate Loftus Room, by comparison, to stadium rock dimensions. A few rows of chairs set-out, a makeshift bar set-up, would an audience materialise? It did, in good numbers.

A short set by a quintet of local improvisers drawn from the music department’s staff and student alumni led, nominally by Will Edmondes (electronics), preceded the main event. A low-fi, low-key performance, prompted by Edmondes’ low-wattage interjections promised to wake the reeds but to no avail. Ban and Maneri listened intently - a feature of leftfield gigs is musicians listening to their peers - then stepped outside for a pre-performance fag. Bar sales ticked-over steadily, CD sales were brisk ahead of the headliners’ set and as dusk descended Ban and Maneri assumed their respective seats (piano stool and utilitarian stackable chair). 

Leftfield, ‘out’ gigs aren't noted for their ferocious swing element. Well, the Downtown New Yorkers know and love their jazz history. Twentieth century salon, European ‘art music’ is certainly key to the duo’s art yet a relentless swinging pulse frequently surfaced. Phantasm (from Maneri’s days with Paul Motian), Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen (worthy of the admission charge alone) and Monastery defined a master class, appropriately in the venerable seat of learning’s recital room.                   

Russell.