GIJF: Evan Parker @ Sage Gateshead. April 15.

Evan Parker (tenor & soprano saxophones)

(Review by Russell)

Evan Parker is travelling to gigs throughout Europe by train. Signing up to Europe Jazz Network’s Take the Green Train scheme which encourages musicians to adopt a ‘green’ approach to travel, the veteran improviser alighted at Sage Gateshead to perform a rare solo concert.

The Northern Rock Foundation Hall, set out cabaret style with rows to the rear, attracted a large crowd. Listeners who were there first time around took their seats alongside Sage Gateshead BMus and Newcastle University (under and postgraduate) music students and Tyneside’s present day improv practitioners to hear a master musician at work. Solo, duo through to big band, Evan Parker has done it all. This solo performance consisted of two improvisations on soprano and one playing tenor saxophone. At a pre-concert talk Parker spoke about circular breathing saying once he ‘had it down’ it became an invaluable tool in performance. Favouring soprano over tenor, Parker’s dexterity and execution of ideas remain undiminished. Undemonstrative, the saxophonist stood stock still, his fingers the only visible moving parts and they were largely a blur; brain to hand, sleight of hand.

A third and final piece proved to be the highlight of the evening. Parker had earlier given the game away suggesting that he had a number of tricks up his improv sleeve. A phrase, a sequence, seemingly ‘instant composition’ wasn’t necessarily the case and, said Parker, it was only he himself who would know what was on the spot inspiration and what he had taken from his vast mental archive of past performances. This Sage Gateshead concert is now filed in Parker’s archive. You never know, subsequent performances may reference Gateshead 2016.          

Russell.