Tonight marked the debut at the Railway of drummer Miles Pillinger, the son of co-leader Helen, and I certainly hope he makes a speedy return as he is the kind of drummer I like to hear. He proved to be ideal for this band as their repertoire covers a wide spectrum of Latin tunes, bebop themes and some interesting standards. He was given great support by Peter Hartley on bass guitar and it was apparent that a great deal of work had gone into the Helen Pillinger/Carole Williams Quintet tackling the frequent tempo changes in some of the numbers.
During the evening a total of fourteen tunes were played and we heard compositions by Wayne Shorter, Gigi Gryce, Kenny Wheeler, Henry Mancini, Kenny Garrett, Juan Tizol, Chick Corea, and a Jobim bossa.
Carole Williams did the vocal on Corea’s What Games Shall We Play Today? and on some of the other tunes her voice was featured doing some wordless blending with Helen Pillinger’s tenor sax. I seem to recollect Sergio Mendes doing similar vocal arrangements with his group Brazil 65.
Helen Pillinger had a quartet feature on Hoagy Carmichael’s Georgia On My Mind which was well received and she impressed me by her sound which had elements of Hank Mobley and Joe Henderson. Her sound projects well in both high and low registers.
Carole Williams also had a quartet feature on Jerome Kern’s Yesterdays and this had some nice guitar from Paul Hartley and sensitive brushwork from Miles Pillinger. Miles travelled from Leeds to do this gig and it was great to see him here at the Railway. He played a fantastic solo on the closing Caravan which brought the evening to a satisfying conclusion.
Next jazz night at the Railway is Feb. 22 with Paul Hartley Quartet featuring reedsman Gair Carson - Mike Farmer
Tom Thumb;Mother and Son; Everybody’s Song But My Own; Georgia On My Mind; Minority; Slow Hot Wind; Favela; Come Escape With Me; What Games Shall We Play Today?; Moving On; Yesterdays; Sing Me A Song; Sometime; Caravan.
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