Newcastle Festival of Jazz and Improvised Music: Paul Edis @ the Lit & Phil - Oct. 2

(© Ken Drew)

Paul Edis (piano)

The Lit & Phil's piano took a little bit of extra tuning thanks to Kit Downes' prepared piano concert the previous evening. At one o'clock, a man not unknown to a Westgate Road audience, sat at the newly tuned Kawai. Paul Edis attracted a near full house to hear him play his The Still Point of the Turning World CD in its entirety.   

Nine tracks, each one played as per the CD's running order, beginning with Dig Deep. Serene, becalmed, the first of many 'still points' during the concert performance. Wholly in command, Paul appeared to be at ease: familiarity with the piano, the Saturday lunchtime audience very much 'on side'. Jerome Kern's Nobody Else but Me (one of two non-original compositions on the Lateralize Records' album), Muddle Through, originally written for the composer's acclaimed sextet, Detour Behind a nod to Detour Ahead (comp. Ellis/Frigo/Carter) and Coltrane, Naima in particular, our exiled north easterner was in fine form. 

(© Ken Drew)

Cluster Fluster (a cluster of notes and such stuff), Start Over (a commentary, intentional or not, on our pandemic times!), Will-O'-The-Wisp, Hypnotized and to close, Jean-Paul-Égide Martini's Plaisir d'Amour by way of Fools Rush In (Elvis!) and My God, I Love Thee, Paul suggesting it be considered a 'fantasie' (your correspondent's spelling, as BBC Radio 3's classical music buffs would have it!). It had been fifty minutes or so of immaculate, beautifully crafted music. Russell