Steve Oakes brought his regular band of hard-boppers to the Railway tonight with the exception of Tom Thorp who was filling in for Steve's absent saxman Ed Kainyek. Right from the opening number, Oliver Nelson's Stolen Moments the band sounded great with a forceful solo from Baranek and some Trane-like tenor from Thorp, a musician I know very little about but I think I heard him at one of the fringe events at the Llandudno Jazz Festival. He is fronting his own quartet on Dec. 14 at the Slug and Lettuce, Didsbury, Manchester, another Tuesday night venue that features modern jazz under the title Creative Space. I also heard that Tom is involved in the jam sessions that have started up again at the Thirsty Scholar pub in central Manchester.
A musician I rate highly and who is much in demand now that the live jazz scene is starting to recover after the lockdown is Andrzej Baranek. He contributed some brilliant keyboard solos on most of the twelve tunes featured tonight and his fingers were flying on Crazeology. Autumn Leaves is a tune that is getting played a lot at this time of year and tonight was no exception, being a feature for Tom Thorp who went down well with the smaller than usual audience. The bass and drums did a fine job and once again Steve Oakes has picked the right musicians to play his sometimes demanding music.
Next jazz night at the Railway is Sunday Dec. 12 with trombonist Suzanne Fonseca's Quartet - Mike Farmer
Stolen Moments; Phase Dance; Autumn Leaves; Straight no Chaser; Sea Journey; How Insensitive; Celebration; Turnaround; Crazeology; Triste; 'Round Midnight; Cantaloupe Island.
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