Wild Card featuring Leo Richardson & Graeme Flowers livestreaming from the 606 Club - May 8

(Screenshot by Lance)

Clement Regert (guitars); Andy Noble (B3); Leo Richardson (tenor sax); Graeme Flowers (trumpet); Eric Ford (drums).

It began with a disappointment, Sophie Alloway was ill and couldn't make the gig and a last minute dep was recruited. Eric Ford didn't have Sophie's blonde tresses, in actual fact he didn't have any tresses at all, but he did have comparable technique and he slotted in well with the rest of the pack (Wild Card, pack, get it?).

This was yet another super 606 Club session. Some great grooves, some hard blowing as well as some tender moments that made the 90 minutes seem to flash past in under an hour and a half.

(Screenshot by Lance)

Masterminding it all was French guitarist Clement Regert who composed many of the tunes as well as delivering some tasteful solos, alternating between a nylon-strung semi electro/acoustic and a more traditional jazz guitar. He sounded good on both, the softer tone of the former contrasting nicely with the sharper sound of the latter. I'm a bit out of touch with guitar terminology these days so maybe Roly or Maurice will tell me more from the photos.

Out front the two horns were blowing as if they were at Rudy Van Gelder's laying down some tracks for Blue Note or Prestige. One number, it may have been called Bravid, had Richardson and Flowers trading eights with no quarter given. Tremendous!

On Hammond, Noble tread the path that so many great organists have to the extent that Regert called him Doctor, it could just have easily been Groove or Brother or Jimmy. I checked him out and he is a BA(Music) which maybe trumps being merely a Groove.

An absolutely superb session. I didn't catch the leader's announcements clearly enough to provide a set list but, I hope, from the above you'll pick up on the good vibes that were generated, as they usually are, from 606. Lance