Bruce Adams (tpt/flg); Paul Edis (pno); Andy Champion (bs); Adam Sinclair (dms).
(Review by Lance/photos by Mike Tilley).
Every trumpet player in the north east should have been here tonight! Listening and learning from the master. I don't mean just technique and creativity but also how to connect with an audience. Incidentally, pianists, basses and drummers could also have picked up a sack full of knowledge along the way as Edis, Champion and Sinclair were well up for the gig and Bruce's appreciation I am sure was more than mere token.
A technique and a range to die for, Adams has taken the legacy of Kenny Baker and built upon it.
Tonight, he played more flugel than trumpet (apart from when, with forked tongue no doubt, he played them together on no less a test piece than Scrapple From The Apple!)
Flugel horn is an instrument that most jazz people, myself included, relate to wistful ballads as played by, say, Art Farmer. Not Bruce! He wails like a Blue Note Cooker not afraid to take the bigger bored instrument up into the canine audio levels normally associated with Duke's feline!
He can purr on the instrument as well - the encore, I Remember You, proved that.
The highlights were many despite, or more likely because, the tunes weren't of recent vintage - we had to make do with Johnny Mercer, Rodgers and Hart and co!
In the engine room, Edis - who'd played a lunchtime gig at Durham's Gala Theatre with the brass ace - did everything we've come to expect from this modest guy (Paul, if I had your talent, modesty would be long gone!) His solos, the blocked chord passage on How Little We Know was but one of many that ticked all the boxes for me.
Andy (the "and still undefeated") Champion retained his title in both the arco and the pizzicato divisions.
Which just leaves Adam Sinclair. Great with sticks and brushes but, give him a shot of Braziliana, and sticks and brushes are swept away to be replaced by the most effective hand drumming I've heard outside of the Rain Forrest .
I have the feeling this could just be gig of the month...
Lance.
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