Paul Edis (piano) & Graham Hardy (trumpet & flugelhorn)
(Review by Russell)
Darlington Jazz Club advertised this Quakerhouse gig as Ray Dales. However, key members of Dales’ band had a better offer… working with a well-known TV personality! Understandably Dales decided to reschedule the booking leaving the organisers to hastily arrange an alternative band. The best they could come up with was a piano/trumpet duo.
Ah, not any old duo. At short notice, Messrs P. Edis and G. Hardy travelled from Tyneside to help out. Well, you can’t go wrong, can you? Top class pianist Paul Edis, top class trumpeter Graham Hardy and you’ve got yourself a top-class gig. Darlington Jazz Club’s regulars know a good thing when they hear it, what a treat! The upstairs room in the Quakerhouse was described by Edis as ‘bijou’ and that’s about right. An ancient hostelry, original beams etc, and a Camra award-winning selection of beers makes this Mechanics’ Yard watering hole a favourite of many.
An Edis tune, originally written for Sue Ferris’ accomplished quintet, – McCoin a Phrase – opened the programme and tune by tune audience numbers grew. Having worked together in several top-rated outfits Edis and Hardy know one another’s approach to the music inside out – the sensitivity, the space, time, it’s all there.
63 Years (comp. Edis) celebrates one couple’s six decades together. Hardy playing flugel sounded better than ever in this bijou Darlington venue. Boot Tree Blues heard its composer Hardy growling and plungering either side of Edis’ fine solo. Like Someone in Love (in C said Edis, for those taking notes) featured superb flugelhorn and piano playing.
Last year Edis and Hardy premiered new material at a Lit & Phil gig and it remains in the book. It’s Been, It’s Gone, It’s Happened (comp Edis) speaks of spilt milk and not crying over it, and Hardy’s The Pounce about a stray cat given a good home and now a year or so later the moggie, according to the composer, ‘is now massive’. Too well fed, one suspects.
The Quakerhouse raffle raised a few quid (bottles of plonk and chocolates were duly claimed) and the bar was revisited ahead of the second set. Ray Celestin’s novel The Axeman’s Jazz sprung to mind as Edis and Hardy resumed with an atmospheric, bluesy take on Black and Tan Fantasy. An Edis waltz – Start Over – could have encouraged some to take to the floor but for the bijou space. Hardy played exquisite flugelhorn on Edis’ Regret, before standing down to allow Edis to play All the Things You Are. The audience showed its appreciation. Frank Loesser’s Brotherhood of Man worked well and the duo revisited JS Bach’s masterful two-part invention. Superb musicianship – next time Edis and Hardy play a duo gig, request Bach, you’ll be amazed. The evening closed with La Vie En Rose. A class act, that’s Paul Edis and Graham Hardy. You can hear them next at the Gala Theatre, Durham
Russell
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