Nick Gould (tenor
sax); Steve Grossart (piano); Iain Harkness (double bass); Kevin Dorrian
(drums)
(Review by Russell)
South of the border
it was a public holiday, in Scotland's capital city it was just another work
day Monday. Edinburgh's countless tourists were enjoying/enduring sweltering
temperatures while down a flight of stairs on Chambers Street the basement Jazz
Bar offered some relief from the burning sun. On this, the final day of this
year's Fringe Festival, Nick Gould brought in JazzMain to play a mid-afternoon
Dexter Gordon set.
No time to lose at
a Fringe gig - one hour, hit the ground running and, as Gordon himself would
have said...Go! Straight in with Sticky Wicket. Steve Grossart at the
Jazz Bar's Yamaha piano put down a marker on You Stepped Out of a
Dream with bassist Iain Harkness stepping up and Kevin Dorrian
covering everything behind the traps as JazzMain's main man, tenor saxophonist
Nick Gould, took on the challenge of doing justice to the music of the
quartet's subject, the legendary Dexter Gordon.
The American left behind a vast amount of material
for tenor players like Gould to work with and on a one hour gig like this tough
choices had to be made. From You Stepped Out of Dream to Darn
That Dream, JazzMain held the attention of an attentive Fringe
audience. Mrs. Miniver again showcased Grossart's fine 'old
school' piano playing and again on a couple of Latin treatments including Catalonian
Nights.
The Dexter Gordon
years on Blue Note and Prestige featured alongside SteepleChase cuts and, as
Gould remarked, he simply had to play Cheese Cake from Go! In
doing so our tenor saxophonist observed that the Van Gelder Studio recording
was made on August 27, 1962...all of one day short of exactly fifty eight years
ago! Back then it was Sonny Clark, Butch Warren and Billy Higgins working with
Gordon, here at the Jazz Bar Messrs Grossart, Harkness and Dorrian gave
sterling support to Gould.
The hour was just
about up as JazzMain wound up with Soy Califa from a favourite
Dexter Gordon album of Gould's, A Swingin' Affair (Gould's
diligent pre-gig research noted the Blue Note recording followed two days on -
same line-up, same studio - from the Go! session). If your
kind of tenor playing is swinging, straight-down-the-middle tenor, then look no
further, Nick Gould is your man.
Russell
1 comment :
Oh wow that was a surprise! Thanks for the review Russell!
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