Mark Williams & Joel McCullough @ The Lit & Phil. January 27

Mark Williams (guitar) & Joel McCullough (guitar)

(Review by Russell/photo courtesy of Brian Ebbatson.)

Walking past St John’s Church on the way to the Lit & Phil a feathered friend left a large deposit on your reviewer’s head. Splat! Such an occurrence is said to bring good luck, so, make a note of the winning numbers on this weekend’s Lottery…4, 23, 24, 37, 42 and…onto more important matters.

On this bitterly cold January day, a good number of folk defied the elements, keen to hear some top quality jazz. Today’s lunchtime concert featured two fine guitarists – Mark Williams and Joel Byrne-McCullough. The Irishmen, friends from way back studied together in Newcastle on the BMus Jazz course, went their separate ways, recently reuniting as a working duo when McCullough decided to make his home in the region. Williams has been a welcome figure on the local scene for some time and now his fellow countryman is making his mark. 

Nine tunes in one hour, a jazz guitar treat.

The seated duo – Williams with his Heritage, McCullough playing a Gibson – played a set of choice material beginning with Peter Bernstein’s Little Green Men (a contrafact of a Grant Green number). Out of Nowhere and John Scofield’s Not You Again (another contrafact, this time There Will Never Be Another You) heard the duo taking it leisurely as if at home, running through a few tunes. Joel took the first solo on all but one of the nine compositions in the programme, Mark responding with an equally fine solo.

Steve Swallow and Joe Henderson were in the pad, as was Neal Hefti’s Girl Talk. The Chick Corea tour de force - Spain - featured, the boys quipping they had been trying to play the tune since their college days. A challenging tune at the best of times, they decided to reharmonise parts of it…just for fun! If it is possible to play a relaxed version of the number, this was it. Just Friends (apposite!), the one number to feature Mark as first soloist, just about took the honours as tune of the day. The Lit & Phil audience sat rapt throughout the hour-long performance. Our guitar wizards said goodbye with I’ll Be Seeing You. A wonderful start to this year’s lunchtime jazz at the Lit & Phil. Next month: Hand to Mouth. A recently established partnership featuring vocalist Lindsay Hannon and guitarist Bradley Johnston, GASbook, Ella, Carmen McCrae and some more contemporary material will be on the menu on Friday 24 February. One o’clock start, a bargain fiver admission.            

Russell.