(Screenshots by Ken Drew)
Jazz North East and The Globe treated us to another amazing live jazz performance on Sunday evening, as they continue their series of livestreams featuring both music and comedy. This week the John Pope Quintet graced us with a mixture of original compositions from their new album Mixed With Glass, a tribute to Ornette Coleman, and even their own adaptation of the song In Heaven by the alt-rock band, Pixies. The quintet’s set was diverse and musically interesting, featuring some shredding solos, swinging melodies, and interesting experimental exploration. Having listened to Mixed With Glass and its experimental qualities, it’s hard to imagine anything new being added in a live setting - yet, the band’s live playing added a whole new layer to known and well-treaded tracks.
Leader of the band John Pope
immediately set the atmosphere with a double bass solo on the first song of the
set, The Right Hand Path. The whole evening’s set was characterised
by the sheer space given to solos, and the artistry of each individual player
being illuminated before the band came back together to create swinging grooves
and catchy group melodies. The Right Hand Path is from the
quintet’s new release Mixed With Glass, and the virtual audience
were also given a taste of some of the other songs featured on it. We heard the
album’s title track Mixed With Glass, Ing, Country Bears Come North,
and finally Plato as an encore. Watching the performance,
Pope’s band leading is obvious through his gestures and cues to other members,
yet when just listening to the music, it’s also obvious that his bass groove is
what pushes the band forward and maintains movement. It was so exciting to
watch musicians really listening to each other in a live space again, and
responding to each other’s playing. Their sensitivity in playing underneath
each other’s solos revealed their attentive listening, and made each solo that
much more engaging. 
The evening’s performance also featured
a reworking of Ornette Coleman’s School Work - the band
actually initially formed as a tribute band to Coleman, and therefore his influence
on their other work makes a lot of sense in this context. The moments of call
and response within the performance again exposed the sensitivity of the band’s
work, and their appreciation for each other’s playing. On many of the songs in
the set, the quintet began to descend into disorientating and exploratory
experimental ideas, but always managed to return to the melody with tight-knit
playing and an engaging groove. It’s difficult to execute moving from a catchy,
danceable swing melody into an experimental phase, playing with dissonant
harmony, multiple tonal centres and irregular rhythm, and then back to the
groove again. John Pope Quintet did this brilliantly as both solo performers,
and as a band.
The solo work from Jamie Stockbridge on
alto saxophone, Faye MacCalman on tenor sax and clarinet, Graham Hardy on
trumpet, Johnny Hunter on drums, and of course John Pope on double bass really
made this performance a special one. Yet as a band, with Pope leading and tying
these individual ideas together, the live set made for a compelling evening’s
entertainment, and left the audience with a satisfying sense of collaboration
and positive energy.
Evie Hill
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