Saxophonics:
Keith Robinson (alto & soprano saxophones), Steve Summers (alto & tenor
saxophones), Graeme Wilson (tenor saxophone) & Niall Armstrong (baritone
saxophone)
(Review by Russell)
Saxophonics at the Jazz Café. The
dedicated few up front, the chattering classes at the back. Intoxicated or
cloth-eared, it is difficult to understand how anyone can’t sit with rapt
attention when Saxophonics take to the stand. A pad of originals, classic
numbers arranged and in some cases painstakingly transcribed, the Tyneside
based saxophone quartet are up there with the best of them. New
York to Camarillo to Blyth to the wine bar, Saxophonics traverse the chamber
jazz globe reaching for the stars (make that the moon). Small in number, the
sound is often that of a roaring large ensemble.
Tenor man Graeme Wilson’s Street of Furs opened the show, as it
does on the quartet’s recently released CD The
River Flows at Night. Four musicians engaged in musical conversation;
convivial consensus, a joke, laughter, a discordant disagreement (amicably
resolved), a point well made. The interaction is as tight as could be;
sight-readers all, a knowing cue, a telepathic understanding. On more than one
occasion one or more of the ensemble took a step back in admiration of their
band mates’ solo flights. A new Niall Armstrong tune - Go
The River Flows at Night took it down, late night. Mike Mower’s
charts appeal to the quartet allowing Keith Robinson’s incisive soprano to
strike out and again on Armstrong’s Accidental
Death. Wilson ’s
Stranded at the Wine Bar evoked that
sense of dread - being in the wrong place, wearily accepting of the fact,
hoping something (someone?) will turn up. Relaxin’
at Camarillo, A Night in Tunisia ,
The New Wallaw (aka The New
Wetherspoon’s!) - three fantastic tunes. More please! Bobby Watson? Yes,
please! Oh. yes…Come Fly with Me.
What more could one ask?
Keith Robinson alluded to the
absence of a rhythm section (the Jazz Café is a little cramped). The bass
player must have been hiding around the corner. Nope. The quartet’s internal
rhythm section - Niall Armstrong - achieved super human feats. It was all down
to Armstrong and relief rhythm maker Wilson. The altoists - Robinson and Steve
Summers – soared, reaching for the stars. It was some journey. Buster Keaton’s
boat? Damfino was the name,
apparently.
Russell.
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