Binker Golding (tenor sax); Deschanel Gordon (piano); Billy Adamson (guitar); Max Luthert (double bass); Jamie Murray (drums)
Binker Golding asked the audience if anyone had booked tickets two years ago and held on to them. A forest of hands went up. Tenor saxophonist, and one half of the the much vaunted duo Binker and Moses, Binker Golding had been scheduled to play Sage Gateshead in March 2020. In those far off pre-pandemic days the Londoner was due to be on Tyneside with his quartet to play a concert at the then recently revamped Gateshead International Jazz Festival. Sadly, the rebranded 2020 'Gateshead Jazz' event never happened. It had been a long wait, but at last we were about to hear Golding and his quintet.
Yes, Golding walked out onto Sage Two's stage with his quintet, not quartet as advertised. Drummer Jamie Murray, the sole survivor from Golding's most recent appearance in the region (Middlesbrough Town Hall, 2019), was joined by guitarist Billy Adamson, bassist Max Luthert and BBC Young Jazz Musician of the Year 2020, pianist Deschanel Gordon.
Golding's two sets (precisely 45 mins each set) featured new material from the quintet's forthcoming new album. Our affable bandleader didn't bother too much in announcing titles, preferring to let the music speak for itself. Ah, the music...few in the audience could have predicted Billy Adamson's slide guitar opening the show, echoes of Ry Cooder! And then it fell into place, the second number - Love Me Like a Woman - was Golding's knowing take on Bonnie Raitt's Love Me Like a Man, Raitt herself a demon slide player.
For the most part we were listening to the lyrical Binker Golding, the firebrand Golding keeping a low profile. Only occasionally did our man stoke it up, largely due to some terrific piano playing by Gordon. The rhythm section boys - Luthert and Murray - didn't let up all night, Adamson supplying the blues element. The set ranged across an Americana landscape via a Celtic jig (surely more than a nod to St Patrick's Day?!) to brief excursions in the post-bop fast lane. The Gateshead audience wanted more, Golding and Gordon returned to the stage to play a magical version of My One and Only Love.
Binker Golding returns to Tyneside on April 24 on what is certain to be an entirely different musical evening. Our man will be working in free jazz territory alongside John Edwards and Steve Noble at Newcastle Jazz Co-op's Railway Street premises. It's guaranteed to be different, very different. Russell
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