Paul Wilkinson
(piano)
(Review by Russell)
St Nicholas
Cathedral presents performances week in week out, from the liturgical to the
devil’s music…jazz! This lunchtime recital – a gig if you will – located in the
south transept featured an experienced tutor and gigging musician from down the
road in Leeds . Advertised as part of the
cathedral’s ‘International Recital Series’, Paul Wilkinson’s set of forty five
minutes included two bona fide jazz tunes and three improvisations.
For something
like seventeen years Paul Wilkinson has worked as a tutor at Leeds College of
Music and Leeds University. A former Perrier Jazz Musician of the Year, pianist
Wilkinson has written a symphony and a concerto and a number of music tuition
books. Clearly a busy man, a journey north on a gloriously sunny day to
Newcastle was rewarded with an attentive lunchtime crowd in the cool of St
Nicholas Cathedral, a place of worship since its founding in 1091. Three
meditative improvisations (of which one referenced Shenandoah) held the collective attention. A brace of jazz tunes
pricked the ear of your BSH correspondent – Carla Bley’s Lawns and Monk’s Bemsha Swing.
The Monk (the jazz Monk as opposed to the clerical) served to testify that Paul
Wilkinson can play, and then some! Your correspondent scarcely suppressed a Yeah! Praise Be!
Russell.
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