Ben Gilbert Trio @ The Globe - Dec 7

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.