Jazz.coop @ the Globe: The Allsorts Band: Saturday January 24

Katie Patterson (drums); Russ Henderson (tenor sax/flute); Erik Svela (guitar); Oli Cadman (keys); Peter Gavin (bass guitar).

(Review by Ann Alex).

The members of this band hail from studies at the renowned Leeds College of Music and they play an interesting and exciting mixture of neo-prog rock, pop, jazz and free jazz, all well bound together.  The audience was small, which surprised me as I thought other young musicians would have been interested. 

I went because I especially wished to see a woman drummer and I couldn’t help but think of a Bebop Spoken There quote from an American woman drummer who, when asked her opinion of Buddy Rich, said “He plays pretty good for a man!”.  I wasn’t disappointed, Katie played excellently irrespective of gender which is the way it should be. 

Besides drumming Katie, from Canada (Nova Scotia), did all the talking, introducing the tunes and even asking the names of the audience members.  The repertoire included originals and versions of numbers by such names as Bob Marley, Alan Broadbent and Weather Report. The tune titles were: Fred; Mactough; Waiting In Vain; Importance Of Being; Old Find; Arpeggiator; Lakeside Stroll; Young And Fine; 86D; Early Morning View; Stonerhill.

For instance, Early Morning View was about a ride in a hot air balloon.

So to best describe this sort of music, I’ve decided a poem would serve!  I should mention that the band wore aprons instead of sporting the more traditional tee shirts.

It takes Allsorts

To give us all sorts of music

Does what it says on the pinny

Keys sadly soulful, up and down harmonic scales

Or flying high in the balloon

Flute fluting, its name like its sound

Assertive sax lays down the riff

Almost but not quite too many times

Bass lays down the riff

Almost but not quite too many times

Guitar lays down the riff

Almost but not quite too many times

Then –

The drums womanned royally in purple pinny

Slivers, shimmers of cymbals

Fall into the snare

Bup bup bup, bam bam bam

False finish to the tune

Audience claps

Falls into the snare

False finish again

Audience claps

True finish

Audience hesitates –

Then claps.
Ann Alex.