GIJF Day One: James Birkett & Bradley Johnston

James Birkett (guitar) & Bradley Johnston (guitar)

(Review by Russell/photo courtesy of Ken Drew)

Late night classic jazz guitar. Sage Gateshead’s cavernous concourse is a difficult space to fill at the best of times. For two seated guitarists to hold the attention of those milling around was a tall order. Messrs Birkett and Johnston set about the task. The best thing to do was to play some great jazz guitar and these guys did just that!

In recent years James Birkett has had an affinity with the Norman Foster-designed Sage Gateshead lecturing on the BMus degree course based in the Music Education Centre. A current student on the course is one B Johnston. So, home territory, let’s play! Blues for BJ, Wave, Stringing the Blues, Birkett and Johnston complemented one another; soloist, rhythmic support, Birkett the senior man confident of Johnston’s abilities. Eddie Lang, Django Reinhardt, Pat Metheny, Birkett and Johnston, the lineage defined. Nuages (of course), Skating in Central Park, Doxy. It couldn’t get much better than that…or could it? The idea of meshing Oleo and Anthropology into one could be considered a sign of madness. Well, let’s declare Birkett and Johnston clinically insane. Hang on, they went for it and it worked. There’s a fine line between madness and genius. Mark these guys down in the latter category! After that, tackling Chick Corea’s Spain was a piece of cake.    
Russell.