Svarc Hanley Longhawn @ The Jazz Café. March 11

Nik Svarc (guitar), Martin Longhawn (organ) & Steve Hanley (drums)

(Review by Russell/Photo courtesy of Mike Tilley.)

The Leeds jazz scene just keeps on giving. Tonight’s guests made the short road trip to Tyneside for the first time since their appearance at last year’s Gateshead Jazz Festival. Guitarist Nik Svarc had made a more recent visit to the Jazz Café working with another combo but this guitar-organ-drums trio is a regular working unit with recorded material documenting their sound.

Nik Svarc, Martin Longhawn (Nord C1) and drummer Steve Hanley aren’t for the hard sell; play a couple of tunes, say a few words, albeit reluctantly, then play another two or three tunes. They opened with a lowdown Stratocaster groove, slowly decaying, turning into a swing time section before Svarc took it out on a groove via a looping pedal board.

Deceptively effortless, the trio’s sense of time is masterful. Svarc’s pedal board enables him to produce myriad looping sounds but it is his guitar playing that truly dazzles. The organ-drums combination – Longhawn’s swirling, smokin’ riffs, Hanley’s mesmerising drum patterns – dovetails seamlessly with Svarc’s imperious solo flights.

Military medium Hanley, a stalking Longhawn (the Hammond pedals sound), Nik Svarc set about concealing All Blues in loop upon loop, lost in time and space. A Svarc number had Scofield written all over it, a Hanley tune, with seemingly little going on, developed incrementally, the trio immersed in the complexity of it all.

Second set, a Tyneside vocalist, just out of a session, dropped by as Svarc hit Piety Street Scofield. Our vocalist exclaimed: Dead groovy! Dead right! The Jazz Café’s Friday night audience listened (it can be done) as the trio launched into what was to be the tune of the night. Bop, in-the-pocket swing, smokin’ Hammond, smokin’ Svarc, the trio took Seven Steps to Heaven.       

Russell.