Andy
French (tenor saxophone & EWI), Calvin Travers (guitar) & Tom Higham
(drums)
(Review by Russell/photo courtesy of Ken Drew).
A young award-winning trio rocks
up at the Bridge Hotel in Newcastle
in the middle of January and a half-decent crowd turns-out. Two sets of
original music composed by the trio (principally Andy French and Calvin
Travers) opened with The River followed
by a drum ‘n’ bass infused Hectic Metric.
The latter wasn’t so hectic. Similarly, Travers’ In the Open made every effort to deny the band name!
The temptation to ‘stretch out’
resisted, Travers did most of the talking, the trio did lots of playing. French
switched between tenor and EWI (electronic wind instrument), tenor heard more
easily than EWI. Left-handed guitarist Travers did what many guitarists are
unwilling/unable to do – he had all four fingers of his right hand glued to the
fret board. Drummer Tom Higham had it down and Twelve Wrongs Make a Right closed
the well-received first set.
Second set: Tom Higham took the
spotlight with a drum feature on Cleopatra,
followed by dynamic group interplay on Tune
One (the trio’s first ever tune!). A folk melody (an intentional ‘spacey
sound’ with French on EWI) for some reason encouraged Travers to kick-off his
shoes (his playing unimpaired). French and Higham took five, leaving band mate
Travers to play solo. This was the highlight of the evening by a stretch. First
class guitar playing, a match for anyone out there. The trio reunited for an
up-tempo outer.
Stretch Trio are on tour. Check
them out.
Russell.
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