Bradley
Johnston (guitar); Pete Gilligan (keys); Paul Grainger (bass); Tim Johnston (no
relation, drums)
(Review by Ann Alex/Photo by Roly Veitch from recent Blaydon gig.).
Many
of you will have enjoyed hearing this quartet as part of the Jazz Cafe Tuesday jam
sessions. Imagine this same band, but
with their performance upped by about 200 per cent, and you’ll have an idea of
last night’s gig, which attracted a large audience. A gig of standards, bop and the occasional
original tune, long accomplished solos (I noticed lots of wonderfully bent
notes on guitar and bass), with arresting sudden endings to some tunes, enough
to make the audience sit up a bit straighter in their seats.
It
was right in with Have You Met Miss
Jones?, led by guitar, solos all round, and 4s on the drums, and drummers
usually have to wait through quite a few tunes before they get their special
moment, but not in this band. Then came
a boppy Doxy which was when I noticed
all the lovely bendy notes; an original called Pat’s Waltz, then Falling
Grace and a tuneful serene rendering of Ellington’s In A Sentimental Mood. There
followed two up tempo numbers for contrast, There’ll
Never Be Another You and a Latin tune, Michel Petruciani’s Looking Up
The
second set gave us 6 tunes and an encore demanded by the audience, starting
with All The Things You Are; during In A Mellow Tone, someone remarked that
the long bass solo was the best solo he’d ever heard Paul G play; I noticed
some interesting quirky tones from the guitar as well. There followed Joy Spring; the classic All
Blues, with Peter at the top end of the piano, marvellous fast notes, so
high up that I was wondering if he was playing some notes right off the top end
that only dogs could hear! Next came
Charlie Parker’s Donna Lee, which had
been included at Pete’s suggestion, ended by one of those sudden stops which I
mentioned earlier. The last number was John McKee, and the encore was a fast
and furious Scrapple From The Apple.
A
very enjoyable evening’s music, with quite a few tunes which were new (to me at
any rate) which increases my listening repertoire nicely.
Ann Alex
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