There was a sense that this could be something special. During the eighties Philip Harper occupied the trumpet chair in Art Blakey's justly famous Jazz Messengers. Logging on to Small's website, it looked like a near full house (a second house was a sellout) was there to hear a man who, in his mid fifties, should/would be in his prime.
It didn't quite turn out like that. A first indication that this wasn't going to be a hard bop slug fest was the sight of Harper perching atop a high stool (the Blakey school of horn players front-up, ready to take on all-comers, don't they?).
A samba going into Milestones and more, a Harper vocal (!), Ellington (it sounded like Strayhorn), to a hymn-like finale. Harper's quintet excelled: pianist Miki Yamanaka one to hear again, Jon Beshay stepping up on flute, tenor and soprano saxophones as Harper literally took a back seat, nephew Dishan Harper (heard recently on Tim Hegarty's Small's gig) impressive, alongside the equally impressive Curtis Nowosad, drums. A curious, if not disappointing set.
Russell
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