Toby Greenwood (ten); Simon Beddoe (flug); Kevin Holbrough (tmb); Jamil Sheriff (keys); Richard Hammond (bs); Dave Walsh (dms).
(Review by Lance/Photo courtesy of Ken Drew).
A musically faultless performance by this band from Leeds - do bands ever come from anywhere else but Leeds these days? Admittedly they didn't hit the deck running - with an audience described by Paul Bream as discerning (AKA absent) - a low key start was inevitable. However, a Wayne Shorter inspired original by one of the monarchs (Greenwood, his crown a snappy, narrow brimmed fedora) moved up through the gears and it was game on.
Sheriff, a frequent visitor to these parts, we know as an imaginative and harmonically aware player and never was this more evident than tonight. His work, in conjunction with the equally impressive bassist Hammond, was outstanding.
Greenwood, as lyrical as Stan Getz and as forward thinking a tenor player as Wayne Shorter, also writes and arranges the material which is often in the Mingus mode.
Bedoe, his coronet a flat cap, blew flugel, quite frugal at first but, as the evening progressed, he was really wailing and on the final number (the only non original) Secret Love he had a good old, no holds barred, blast.
Holbrough, fresh from Darlo Festival where he and Sheriff formed part of the Simon Read Octet, was equally effective. His tone, smooth but with a cutting edge, the sound many trombone players would (hypothetically) give their right arm for.
Behind it all, Walsh did the woodchopping, bulldozing, piledriving, pneumatic drilling that contemporary drummers do but with a difference - he incorporated sensitivity and subtlety into the mix.
To those that weren't there - hang your heads in shame. However, as Officer i/c Raffles Bream pointed out, their absence shortened the odds against those present winning which was proven when, not only did I win but Young Pam sitting next to me also won. The prizes? a CD of your own choice from the fabled Bream Collection. I opted for Norma Winstone's Well Kept Secret. Pam's choice, at this moment in time, is also a well kept secret.
Raffle apart, the real winners were those that made the well deserved effort to hear a splendid band.
Lance
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