Jazz Café Jam Session - April 18

(Review by Lance).

This was the mother of all jam sessions, to quote a phrase, and I use the expression advisedly. This was like a jazz kindergarten the room bestrewn with proud parents appreciating the talents of the future Down Beat Poll Winners on stage. The parental pride was justified.

Never in the field of human conflict, which is what jam sessions are, has so much been owed to so few (in years that is).

Take the house trio, Minnie and Dan Stanley out of the equation and the average age must have been in the mid teens - incredible!

So much going on, a blow by blow account would require a War & Peace (or a Steve T) length review to do it justice so I'll merely make a few observations.

Matt MacKellar, we know has been accepted by Berklee in Boston, Mass. and deservedly so. On tonight's showing there could well be more.

Most of the players emerged from, or are a part of, the various bands and courses held at Sage Gateshead which says much for the quality of teaching there.

Great as the music was, a few more horns would have added to the variety - surely the first jam session ever without a plethora of saxophones jostling for position!

With the house trio spending most of the evening on the bench the music occasionally lacked the presence of a pivotal figure to organise beginnings and endings - one of the essentials of a jam session - and thus bring sense and sensibility without pride and prejudice to the goings on.

The more senior figures may have had a relatively easy night yet they still made their mark. John Pope snapped his G string (you couldn't make these things up) before they were under starters orders so played the gig on bass guitar. His intro, head and solo on Goodbye Pork Pie Hat was exemplary. Mark Williams set the bar for the guitarists who were to follow and likewise Russ Morgan for the drummers.

Minnie and Lin Lee warmed us up before the session proper with The Very Thought of You - no doubt preparing for their quartet gig on Sunday at Riding Mill Parish Hall (see RH column).

The two girls popped up again later in the jam proper.

I vowed not to single any one of the young players out but, a special mention must be made of Dylan Thompson. Is he 14 or 15? his talent belied his tender years. Russell said he looked like a young Clark Tracey. He sounded like one too!

This was quite a night!
Photos.
Lance.
Mark Williams (guitar); John Pope (bass guitar); Russ Morgan (drums) + Matthew MacKellar, Dylan Thompson, Matthew Fairhurst (drums); Joel Brown, Lin Lee Wong, Vince Webb, Ben Lawrence (piano); Michael Dunlop (bass guitar); Francis Tulip, Nathan Lawson, Matthew Downey, Dan Stanley (guitar); James Metcalf (trumpet); Minnie Fraser (vocal).