GIJF Day 3 @ Sage Gateshead: Jambone with Zoe Gilby and Matt Anderson

(Review by Ann Alex/photo courtesy of Russell)

This concert was part of a project involving our own local singer Zoe Gilby, and Matt Anderson from Yorkshire, who had written new music to be performed by Sage Gateshead’s own youth jazz ensemble, Jambone. The first song was Zoe’s Is It Me?, a lively bop style song which was Zoe’s response to recent general upsets in the world, a theme which cropped up a few times during the weekend. Then came The Tunnel, which Ms Gilby wrote after performing in the atmospheric surroundings of a disused train tunnel in Romania. This was a swinger, with the brass instruments adding to the atmosphere, trombone, alto and tenor sax solos, and even flute solos and a round of acapella singing from the band, with harmonies: ‘Holding the past, it lasts for a lifetime, legend of old, the story told.’
There then followed Paul Edis’s beautiful arrangement of The Water Of Tyne, done as a canon (a sort of complex round) and another gentle piece by Edis, Please Peace Piece. Matt Anderson stepped up to the plate to conduct his own piece Interesting Times (that theme again) with the band and the drums exchanging bars of 4, then came Matt’s Distances, when he considered the distances involved in travelling to New Zealand, with a baritone sax solo from Ryan De Silva, long notes to represent the journey. The concert was neatly rounded off with Edis’s Loop the Loop, with solos all round and a tasty duet from bass and a breathy Jethro-Tull like flute.

I enjoyed this performance just as much as the offerings from the more famous musicians, not that I’m influenced by knowing some of those on stage personally, mind. And the colourful programme notes provided were a great help in writing this piece anyway.

Ann Alex

Paul Edis (director); Zoe Gilby (vocals); Matt Anderson (tenor sax)

Jambone:  Nicholas Caughey, Ryan De Silva, Alex Thompson, Henry Schmid, Ella Talbot (saxes);

Megan Robinson, Imogen Davies-Pugh (flutes); 
James Metcalf, Ben Lawrence, Lucien Guest, Callum Mellis (trumpets); Darcy Whyatt, Kate Garnett, Fabio De Sousa (trombones); Philipp Grobe (piano); Matthew Downey (guitar); Alex Shipsey (bass); Dylan Thompson (drums).