Newcastle Festival of Jazz and Improvised Music @ The Newcastle Literary & Philosophical Society - Sept. 30

Maniscalco, Bigoni, Solborg: Emanuele Maniscalco (piano. keys); Francesco Bigoni (saxes, clarinet); Mark Solborg (guitar, electronics).

Another tremendous night of improvised jazz was enjoyed by a sell out  Friday night crowd at Newcastle’s Lit and Phil.

The evening began with the Danish trio - Maniscalco, Bigoni, Solborg  with a jazz version of Scandi noir for joyous it wasn’t. Very serious, an almost classical work - Solberg  had been comparatively wild in his solo performance the previous evening.  There was some fine  juxta play by Maniscalco between electronic keyboard and piano and when Bigoni switched to clarinet it was a little more cheerful. All in all, a set for the meditative listener.

Binker Golding (sax); Alexander Hawkins (piano); John Pope (bass); Paul Hession (drums).

 (© Ken Drew)

A change of running order due to travel disruptions saw the quartet of Binker Golding, Alexander Hawkins, John Pope and Paul Hession play the middle set. Pope, Hession and Hawkins have all played together before but the addition of Golding meant that this was the first time this quartet had played together. You would never have known it as they exploded out of the blocks as if they had been playing together for years. What energy and drive from all four members. Power jazz completely dominated the room. I was at times transported to a totally different space. It wasn’t all high energy there was a quite gentle section towards the end where John Pope used his bow to great effect. Binker Golding who always seem to play in profile provided a great focal point but all four players were absolutely monumental. The raucous applause and cheers that greeted the end of set were fully deserved.

Nicole Mitchell: (flutes).

 (© Ken Drew)

How could you possibly follow that you might ask? A solo flautist may not have been everyone’s choice but US star Nicole Mitchell soon dispelled anyone who may have had such concerns. To describe Mitchell as simply a flautist is a bit of a misnomer. With the skilful manipulation of a range of electronic devices she manged to conjure a hypnotic soundscape as voice and flute were harmonized and looped against a background of beats and rhythms. The quite astonishing thing was that everything seemed to be controlled from a mobile phone. On the final piece Mitchell even managed to get ‘Newcastle Festival of Jazz and Improvised Music’ into the lyrics -sublime. Steve H