Entropi Dee Byrne
(saxophones); Andre Canniere (trumpet); Rebecca Nash (keys); Olie Brice (bass);
Matt Fisher (drums).
(Review by Steve H/Photos courtesy of Ken Drew).
The first musical offering of JNE’s second ‘Women
Make Music’ event got off to a great start at The Black Swan on Thursday night
with Dee Byrne’s Entropi. I reviewed this band very favourably last year on
these pages so I was
really looking forward to this gig. I wasn’t disappointed as the band seem to
have become even more accomplished in the intervening months.
A very fine set of contemporary jazz was delivered with great aplomb. All the compositions are written by Byrne although I didn’t quite catch the name of the individual pieces there was definitely one about babysitting a goldfish! The great thing about this ensemble is that the quality of each individual musician is outstanding and yet none hog the limelight. What is produced is a collective, harmonious, joyous, intricate, sound which really engages the listener. My only quibble would be that we only got one set instead of two. I look forward to this band’s continuing evolution and progress,
A very fine set of contemporary jazz was delivered with great aplomb. All the compositions are written by Byrne although I didn’t quite catch the name of the individual pieces there was definitely one about babysitting a goldfish! The great thing about this ensemble is that the quality of each individual musician is outstanding and yet none hog the limelight. What is produced is a collective, harmonious, joyous, intricate, sound which really engages the listener. My only quibble would be that we only got one set instead of two. I look forward to this band’s continuing evolution and progress,
Earlier in the evening we were treated to a
set of ‘Computer Jazz’ by Shelly Knotts & Mariam Rezaei. These 2 young
woman sat on stage armed with 2 Apple Macs. I never seen such levels of
intensity and concentration in front of a keyboard (and I work in IT). A
strange set of sounds and rhythms emanated from the stage. At first I was quite
nonplussed by the performance but by the end of the set I had, strangely
enough, got quite into it. An interesting experience but, it may be one better
suited to a younger audience who had had more stimulation than a pint of
Guinness.
As an added bonus both performances were being
painted in situ by artist Gina Southgate who’s current ‘Woman Paints
Music’ exhibition had previewed earlier that same evening in the arts centre
above The Black Swan. Seeing the painting evolve during the performance was
quite captivating and the finished pictures were a wonder. Gina even managed to
make the computer duo appear quite dynamic. I urge you all to visit the
exhibition my review of which can be found here.
Steve.
1 comment :
thanks for the lovely review!
Post a Comment