Ben
Gilbert (piano); Elliot Roffe (double bass); John Arnesen (drums)
(Review by Russell)
The
Blofeld Experiment, Extreme Measures, that was more than a decade ago, since
when Ben Gilbert relocated to London and more recently set up home in Leeds.
Earlier in the day our pianist conducted a successful Jazz Co-op workshop at
Sage Gateshead before meeting up with Elliot Roffe and John Arnesen to play a
debut trio gig at Jazz Co-op HQ on Railway Street in Newcastle.
The hordes
descended on Railway Street (most of them making their way to the Arena!) and
by eight o'clock a jazz crowd had taken its seats in the Globe's first floor
performance space. Cole Porter's (You'd be so) Easy to Love introduced
the trio; sparkling swing time, waltz time, bassist Elliot Roffe's solo
instantly confirming his A-list credentials, similarly John Arnesen's hugely impressive
drumming taking it out. Quite a start! Richard Rodgers, Kenny Wheeler, Wayne
Shorter, Ben Gilbert had put together a choice set list, Shorter's Backstage
Sally from the reedsman's days with the Jazz Messengers particularly
effective with another fine contribution from Arnesen. Bandleader Gilbert chose
to close the first set with an original composition - A Beautiful
Summer. The Bad Plus and EST sprung to mind. 
Second
set: Miles Davis' take on Frank Loesser's If I Were A Bell opened
the show and what a show it turned out to be! A real swinger it was and a
favourite tune followed - Oliver Nelson's Stolen Moments. No horn
arrangement, of course, but all three musicians - Gilbert, Roffe and Arnesen -
pitched in with excellent solos. Time for a bop era standard - Monk's In
Walked Bud. An evocative title if ever there was one - imagine TS Monk on
stage at the Five Spot and the man walks in! Gilbert clearly likes Wayne
Shorter's compositions, our pianist choosing Infant Eyes from Speak
No Evil.
As closing
time loomed Gilbert thanked band mates Roffe and Arnesen for their sterling
efforts and the Jazz Co-op's attentive audience for turning out on a mid winter
evening. Drummer Jeff Hamilton's Gina's Groove set up a most
musical of musical bass 'n' drums conversations with Gilbert clearly happy with
how things had gone. It had been an excellent evening of GASbook to
contemporary jazz...just imagine how the trio will sound with a couple
of dozen gigs under its belt!
Russell.
No comments :
Post a Comment