Mick Shoulder (bs); Graham Hardy (tpt); Graeme Wilson (ten); Paul Edis (pno); Rob Walker (dms).(Review by Lance.)
Close your eyes and Hey! you're in Birdland, NYC, listening to the Jazz Messengers, or is it London's Flamingo Club and the Jazz Couriers? Nah! we're in Newcastle listening to the Emcee 5 in the Down Beat! Well we are in Newcastle but it's 50 years on from those halcyon days and smoky dives. We're in the Literary and Philosophical Society listening to Mick Shoulder's Quintet. Around us the portraits of past Lit and Phil dignitaries look down upon us like the Lords of Ruddigore in Sullivan's opera of the same name. However, unlike the aforementioned Lords, these portraits do not come to life.
Mick Shoulder, to his credit, apart from being a sensitive and meaningful bass player, has played a major role in drawing attention to areas of jazz that may otherwise have been overlooked by today's seekers of new horizons. Djangologie has kept the Hot Club flame burning and this quintet reminds us that the 1950s' Blue Note era is now the centrifugal force of jazz - the new mainstream - drawing on what went before and providing the inspiration for what was to come.That Old Feeling benefitted from an Edis piano intro that led into a superb arrangement with Hank Mobley - sorry Graeme Wilson - setting the standard for what was to follow. Whisper Not and Graham Hardy's flugel is outstanding. It may have been written by Benny Golson but the feeling evoked is Ian Carr and Emcee 5.
Too Close For Comfort (Couriers) swing like crazy. a luscious feature for Wilson - Some Other Time - reminds us of the beauty that abounds in a balladic interpretation and, closing the set, we're Swingin' the Samba a la Horace Silver with Rob Walker giving it that.
A bottle of Lord Collingwood - Wylam Breweries tribute to Nelson's sidekick goes down well at the reasonable price of £2.50.
The second set continues in the same vein - this is going to be high on the Gig of the Year list. Come Rain or Come Shine (Messengers) has great solos all round and none better than Edis' block chords passage that makes me think he's got more than the average number of fingers.
Graham Hardy on flugel and Solitude tugs at the emotions, Thursday's Thing, a minor keyed opus that once more brings Emcee 5 to mind, before the grand finale, Cheek to Cheek, arguably the Couriers finest arrangement and beautifully re-created here.
Everyone in the world should have been here tonight - one or two weren't.
Thank you Mick and the guys but please, don't make us wait another 12 months till the next one!
Photos.
Lance.
PS: Apologies for initially billing this as a sextet - it was all those extra fingers of Paul Edis that confused the issue!
A bottle of Lord Collingwood - Wylam Breweries tribute to Nelson's sidekick goes down well at the reasonable price of £2.50.
The second set continues in the same vein - this is going to be high on the Gig of the Year list. Come Rain or Come Shine (Messengers) has great solos all round and none better than Edis' block chords passage that makes me think he's got more than the average number of fingers.
Graham Hardy on flugel and Solitude tugs at the emotions, Thursday's Thing, a minor keyed opus that once more brings Emcee 5 to mind, before the grand finale, Cheek to Cheek, arguably the Couriers finest arrangement and beautifully re-created here.
Everyone in the world should have been here tonight - one or two weren't.
Thank you Mick and the guys but please, don't make us wait another 12 months till the next one!
Photos.
Lance.
PS: Apologies for initially billing this as a sextet - it was all those extra fingers of Paul Edis that confused the issue!
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