Sunday Night @ the Globe: "Two of a Mind" - May 29

Sue Ferris (baritone sax); Steve Summers (alto sax); Paul Susans (bass); Rob Walker (drums).

Recreating classic albums from the past has always been a crowd puller. The audience know what to expect and the musicians have a target to aim for.  That they don't always hit that target is the chance they and the audience take. Fortunately, last night's recreation of the 1962 Paul Desmond and Gerry Mulligan album Two of a Mind was, without a shadow of a doubt, spot on.

All the Things You Are and Blight of the Fumble Bee got the show off to a brisk start. The interplay between the two horns a joy to behold. Last minute dep Susans provided the harmonic foundation so important in a chordless quartet with Walker supplying the rhythmic drive. I'm not sure that Stardust worked but, then again, I don't think it worked that well for Desmond and Mulligan either so they were in good company. 

One that most certainly did work was The Way You Look Tonight. The contrapuntal passages and the theme shifting moments purveyed that breathless charm, to quote from the lyric, perfectly. Line For Lyons wasn't from Two of a Mind but from an earlier (1957) get together.

The first set concluded with Out of Nowhere and nobody was going anywhere.

For the second set, Summers added tenor and curved soprano saxes to his armory whilst Ferris opted to add alto sax and flute to hers and it was on this latter instrument that she blew a sizzling I'm Beginning to See the Light. From the subterranean depths of the baritone to the dizzy heights of the flute there's no musical vertigo for Sue. 

Steve rejoined the party on tenor and Sue returned to bari for Mobley's This I Dig of You and I dug of them. He explained that although the numbers in the second set weren't from the album they intended to play them as if they were.

It worked! If the first set paid lip-service to a classic recording, this set took it to an even higher level not least because of the variety offered by the permutations of the different horns: Bernie's Tune (alto/soprano); Metheny's The Moon Song (tenor/bass/drums); Mingus' Moanin' - not to be confused with the Timmons/Blakey classic (bari/tenor) and a flat out blast on Anthropology that even the insertion of those pesky fours couldn't spoil.

The spotlight may have been on the two out front but the two in the engine room kept the ship afloat.

The evening concluded with In a Sentimental Mood that even had a couple of dancers and no I wasn't one of them!

A brilliant and well attended night - Lance