Whitehead has an illustrious c.v. that includes stints with Nucleus, Graham Collier and Loose Tubes. All forward looking bands in their day and I visualised some groundbreaking stuff, new frontiers discovered, fresh horizons etc.
There were hints of a brave new world in the opening number and in the last but more of that later.
I missed the title of the opener but it was quite explorative and seemed to last forever before all four found a common ground and got a bit of a groove going. I fastened my seat belt as I sensed we were heading for some turbulence.
Wrong!
You'd be so Nice to Come Home To, dedicated to a lady in Shropshire, began with just bass and drums working out on the theme - nice - before piano and drums joined the party. These first two numbers took up the best part of half an hour and I wasn't complaining.
Another standard, My Shining Hour, kept me listening intently. Not least for the fine solos from Cleyndert and Gee - the latter doing an impressive bit of cross-hands showboating.
Who Can I Turn To? An unaccompanied reading by Whitehead turned the tune inside out without losing any of the emotional impact of his playing.
The clock was ticking down towards the end of the first set (and the livestream) when our man gave us a lecture on freedom quoting articles from the Human Rights Act before, eventually, playing an original of his - Unlocked. Unsurprisingly this was one of the freer pieces although not painfully so and it eventually segued into John Lennon's Imagine which seemed to go down well.
Another Super Saturday at the 606. Lance
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