Tim Kliphuis (violin), Nigel Clark (guitar) & Roy Percy (double
bass)
Gateshead minus his luggage. The Dutchman
believed his suitcase was stuck on a ceilidh carousel at Schiphol Airport going
round and round and round (waltz time?) longing to be partnered by a frantic
fiddler. With a number of festival commitments to fulfill - concerts and
workshops - Kliphuis went shopping for a shirt. Tyneside is a shopper’s
paradise (the Sage knows you Shop Til You
Bop) and the violin virtuoso looked half-way presentable when he took to
the stage in the Northern Rock Foundation Hall for a late night gig with
regular British buddies Nigel Clark (guitar) and double bassist Roy Percy.
(Review by Russell)
The Sage Gateshead’s Fiddles on Fire publicity stated the whole building comes alive with fiddle
music representing a huge variety of styles and traditions. The festival’s opening
concert featured the north east’s own world class orchestra - the Northern
Sinfonia led by fiddler Bradley Creswick - followed by a whistle stop weekend
circumnavigation of the fiddler’s globe. Performances and workshops claimed
every available space throughout the Sage leaving little room for the
exercising of a fiddler’s elbow! Musical postcards arrived from Asia, the Americas , Scandinavia, Europe
and the Celtic nations.
Violinist Tim Kliphuis arrived in
In forty five minutes (plus
encore) the trio’s musical passports were stamped many times in far-off lands. The
three of them stood together in close proximity (covering little more than a
postage stamp) creating an intimacy illuminated by a single spotlight.
Amplification was minimal (Clark and Percy), the objective being to achieve
clarity of sound (New Orleans ’
clarinetist Evan Christopher performed similarly in Hall Two a few years ago).
Dazzling string playing from
Kliphuis (the acoustic Kliphuis) and Clark on Fats
Waller’s Honeysuckle Rose set the jazz bar at world record
heights. The great jazz violinists (Kliphuis, Djangologie’s Emma Fisk, Stephane
Grappelli) share one thing in common - they do it with élan. It must be a
visual thing. The Nearness of You
maintained the American jazz groove until Vivaldi intervened and then we were
off to South America to interpret Astor’s Dream (comp.Kliphuis). Nordic
lands beckoned (Grieg’s Peer Gynt),
the irresistible sweep of Aaron Copland’s North American canvas had the
late-night audience stompin’ at a hoe down (Percy’s darn-good slap-bass) then,
to catch our collective breath, the European classical cannon imposed a welcome
stillness close to midnight.
Russell.
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