Tom Rainey (drums), Ingrid
Laubrock (tenor saxophone) & Mary Halvorson (guitar)
(Review by Russell).
Jazz North East’s On the Outside strand gave a
long-overdue north east of England
debut to high profile New Yorker Tom Rainey. A veteran of countless sessions,
his appearance at the Bridge Hotel drew a bumper crowd and it was standing room
only long before the start of the first set. German born, New York resident, tenor saxophonist Ingrid
Laubrock is firmly established on the Big Apple’s Downtown scene. Anthony
Braxton alumni are many, and one of the brightest of his shining stars -
guitarist Mary Halvorson - formed the third element in Rainey’s trio.
Rainey, quiet if not shy, said
they would play two sets. Free jazz, improv, call it what you will, is a
strange, mutating beast. Rarely does a performance begin at full throttle, the
participants preferring to bide their time, testing the water. Rainey’s trio
worked on composed-through structures (one perceptive listener suggested they
could have been reading the dots) with break-out free flights. The sleight of
hand - seemingly little happening to sudden tumult - is one of the wonders of
the music. Tenor Madness was to be expected, shimmering, brushed cymbals, snare
and raked wall radiator constituted an in-performance master class and glorious
out guitar playing stunned the
Russell.
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