Bim Williams, a Manchester-based guitarist, plays in a post Wes Montgomery style. He has an incisive edge to his sound and, if I played guitar, I would seek this guy out for advice or lessons as his facility on his instrument is amazing.
I loved his choice of tunes tonight, especially La Rosita, a tune composed by Paul Dupont and Alan Stuart. Coincidently, on Sunday afternoon I was listening via Spotify to Coleman Hawkins and Ben Webster playing their version of this Latin-flavoured number taken from the Verve LP Blue Saxophones.
Another great moment occurred when Williams played a tune that sounded familiar but had me racking my brains trying to remember the title. Just before the final chorus it hit me! Delilah from the Max Roach/Clifford Brown repertoire. It brought back memories of Ronnie Scott and Jimmy Deuchar playing this at Ronnies’ Old Place with the great Alan Ganley doing his thing on mallets during the theme.
I liked the bass player tonight, Asaph Tal who I’ve not come across before. We are fortunate here in the North West in having so many first class double bass players to call upon. George Grundy fitted in well with the trio and had a somewhat aggressive Philly Jo Jones' approach with a very active left hand.
Bim Williams must be a big fan of Thelonious Monk as during his performance we heard no less than six Monk tunes although one of these was based on a Japanese folk song.
It was a great evening of trio jazz and it was a shame that there weren't more packing the place out as two patrons were surprised the gig finished at 10:45pm instead of 11:00pm but I was OK with that as I had an appointment with a microwave!
Next "Jazz at the Railway" is on Tuesday Oct. 26 with the Paul Hartley Quartet featuring trumpeter John Hulme. Mike Farmer
Sub City; Just Friends; Ask Me Now; La Rosita; Railway Blues; Nica’s Dream; Delilah; Let’s Cool One; Japanese Folk Song; In Walked Bud; Reflections; I Mean You.
No comments :
Post a Comment