GIJF Day Two: Recorded music from the Concourse and Other Matters

(By Ann Alex)
This was a most unusual GIJF as, for me, it didn’t begin until 2pm on Saturday with my first taste of performing free form jazz during the Pink Lane Jazz Coop workshop. An experience, terrifying but quite exciting.  But it needs to be done, not written about, so more of that later, in the review of the Roby Glod Trio.

A much underrated aspect of the GIJF is the recorded music played between concourse performances. Most people hear this only as background but I found that it’s worth more attention. I listened on Saturday evening as I did a stint at the Pink Lane Coop desk, encouraging people to buy shares towards the purchase of the Globe pub.  (Have you got yours yet?)  Most people were in Hall One with The Spring Quartet, while I was listening to mellow jazz piano with bass, an almost classical feel to the music.  The piano part wouldn’t have been out of place in a Romantic style early 20^th century piano concerto. Then came a piece with Balinese cymbals and drums, overlaid with voices singing a riff and an insistent background beat, cut across by an electronic sound. After a break, we were back to more standard jazz, a smooth trumpet playing Paper Moon, followed by a catchy tune from piano, bass and trumpet, then the same instruments telling us it was ‘a lovely way to spend an evening.’  Some fast bebopish piano, then the chords of a double bass being tuned, back to the unmistakeable sounds of live music.  All this while chatting to people about the Coop, and helping a passing child to make a dice out of a square of paper.

I had wanted to see Courtney Pine (Saturday,10.30pm ,Hall Two) and also Glassonic (Friday, 10.45pm, NRFH) but both performances were too late for those of us who rely on public transport to get home. Programming must be tricky for such an event as GIJF, but I hope the Sage organisers will take note and remedy this sort of problem next year.  My only gripe.

Ann Alex