Pilgrim St. Set @ Hoochie Coochie February 19.

Richard Burns (tpt); Gary Turner (ten); Paul Edis (pno); Paul Susans (bs gtr); Rob Walker (dms).

(Review by Lance/photo courtesy of Jerry.)

The monthly gig by the Pilgrim St. Set at the popular Pilgrim St. venue was accorded by the Pilgrims present to have been proof of the on-stage Pilgrims' progress. inasmuch as, with the exception of Horace Silver's Nutville, and Wayne Shorter's Adam's Apple all the numbers were composed by the various band members. That my personal preference was for Nutville is no reflection on the rest which, to a greater or lesser degree, were all excellent.

The heat generated by the band was of such intensity that, had the old fire station across the road still been operative, the crews would have been on a red alert standby.

I didn't catch the names of the originals - not being au fait with the Australian language - but it didn't matter, What did matter were the solos which sizzled like pork sausages in a frying pan. In particular, Gary Turner aimed for Mars and landed on Jupiter - such was the power of his solos.

Burns, by contrast, adopted the Milesian approach and went for the meaningful rather than the flamboyant. On keyboards, Edis took the middle road getting the best of both worlds along the way. Susans, on bass guitar tonight, had no worries about collapsing bridges as he played some of the funkiest bass since Jaco was at the City Hall.

Rob had earlier given us an extended display of his talents during a percussive soundcheck and he kept that momentum going during the gig.

In between numbers Burns told us about making a compost bin and purchasing a 2007 Vauxhall Victor and, prior to the gig, Warren played an interesting disque - Ces Bottes Sont Faites Pour Marcher.

Back on March 19 (or maybe March 12)

Lance.
PS: Thanks to Paul Grainger for identifying Adam's Apple for me.