PG3 @ The Globe Jazz Bar - Oct. 10

Peter Gilligan (pno); Paul Grainger (bs); Russ Morgan (dms).
(Review by Lance).

Newcastle was in party mood. The swirl of the kilt and the skirl of the pipes made the city centre seem like Sauchiehall Street at Hogmanay. The reason being that Scotland had qualified for the next round of the rugby world cup having defeated Samoa at the Twickenham of the North - well for 7 days - St. James' Park.

Over at The Globe Jazz Bar, home of the Jazz Coop, it was less of a party and more an intimate soirée in the upper room.

The three musicians were in good form with an imaginative and varied programme that included a clutch of Jerome Kern - the opener, Nobody Else But Me; Yesterdays, featuring Grainger, and The Song is You. This latter number, played almost at the speed of light, had an incredible piano solo and some equally impressive drumming all held together by rock steady Grainger.

Michel Petrucciani's Las Champagne - a beautiful, reflective piece by a pianist/composer who sadly died aged 32 - played with much feeling; Kenny Wheeler's Kind Folk; Jarrett's Prism and a familiar sounding rhumba the name of which escapes me that had a fantastic display of hand-drumming by Morgan.

Downstairs the disco party had begun but we were above such things (downstairs/above - get it?)

The second set included My Corner of the Sky by Lars Jansson; the aforementioned Song is You; Rain Waltz from the pen of Fred Hersch and finally a blast on Lady be Good and these laddies are good!

Lance.