Dave Milligan (piano), Tom Lyne (double bass) &
Tom Bancroft (drums)
(Review by Russell)
Jazz goes to choich! In a side street off the main
drag, culture vultures ventured over to the dark side determined to resist any
mumbo jumbo from the wacko deluded oddballs. Brunswick, a melting pot of the
comfortable and complacent, the lonely and lost, some killing time, escaping, temporarily,
from their main drag dead end job. They have come in from the cold, studiously
ignoring the Big Issue vendors, side-stepping the homeless.
Inside, the chapel welcomed the jazz brethren, or
rather, the Friends of King’s Hall bods and the dragooned students (out of bed
in the nick of time). The Dave Milligan Trio had something of a surprise
awaiting them – Newcastle University’s music department went to the trouble of
transporting a grand piano to the city centre venue! Milligan’s principal
discipline is jazz although he does work cross genre, as do his bass player and
drummer. Tom Lyne, Canadian born, but a long time resident north of the border,
possesses a real jazz sound; full, resonant, with a great sense of time. The
other Tom, Tom Bancroft, has an equally impressive jazz cv together with his
interests in the folk world.
The majority of the compositions played in this one
hour recital were written by Milligan.
Brubeckian, European classical, percussive dance grooves, the tunes
wittily titled – Don’t Just Do Something,
Sit There and Going Nowhere to
name but two – were well received, although the audience sat on its hands,
choosing/failing to acknowledge solos from Lyne and Bancroft, the trio winning
polite applause at their conclusion.
Milligan’s playing of a high order, dense, percussive
excursions drew in the listener with bass and drums negotiating the charts in
an unobtrusive manner. An atypical piece to end the lunchtime recital – a South
African township composition – belatedly stirred audience and musicians alike.
Russell
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