Francis Tulip Quartet @ The Globe Jazz Bar - August 11

Francis Tulip (guitars); Ben Lawrence (keys); Michael Dunlop (bass guitar); Matt MacKellar (drums).

(Review by Lance)

It was a rainy night in Georgetoon, but that didn't stop friends, family and fans of the fab four filling out the ground floor bar for the Jazz Coop's increasingly popular Sunday night sessions. And it  was worth getting soaked both internally and externally for.

Having said that, it wasn't the best I've heard them although, as the set progressed and the sound levels evened out, it became increasingly obvious we were listening to four potentially prodigious musicians whose technique both individually and as a group moves up a notch with each hearing.

As a band their true forté seems to be covering past masters such as Coltrane and Shorter - Trane's Like Sonny (Rollins) stood head and shoulders above the rest which makes it a very tall item item indeed.

At the other end of the scale Body and Soul didn't do it for me. The Johnny Green classic is such an emotive piece you need to know the lyric, sense the feeling evoked by the words to get the melody across which perhaps they didn't, after all it was written around about the time their grandparents were born - maybe even before then. The same could be said about All or Nothing at All except that with this one they played it uptempo, the words didn't matter, and it worked 100%. Ben Lawrence nailed it.

Outside the rain was becoming more precipitous so, unsure as to whether I was in Newcastle or Venice, I opted to forego the last couple of numbers and swam across to Central Station just in case there were travel problems which, for once, there wasn't - apart from the fact that the clock outside the station, like the ones inside also appears to have gone on strike - no pun intended. I ask you, a railway station where the clocks have stopped! Grounds for compensation if you miss your train I would think.

However, I digress, you can catch this fine band again on Tuesday (tomorrow) at The Fox in Hexham and 50% of them next Sunday (18th) at the Globe, where Francis and Matt are with Dan Garel, that fine young alto player who graced the northeast scene for a couple of years whilst at Durham University.

Lance