Vasilis Xenopoulos-Paul Edis Quartet @ The Traveller's Rest, Darlington - Oct. 14

Vasilis Xenopoulos (tenor sax, soprano sax, flute); Paul Edis (piano); Andy Champion (double bass); Steve Hanley (drums)

Earlier in the day Vasilis and Paul played a duo gig at Durham's Gala Theatre with a focus on 'home'. The theme continued this evening at Opus 4 Jazz Club. Joining our duo, A-listers, bassist Andy Champion and drummer Steve Hanley. A good turn out at the Traveller's Rest suggested word had got around that this gig was definitely one not to be missed. A pint of Theakston's Bitter (cheap as chips), a strip or two of raffle tickets, we were set fair.

As at the Gala, the set opened with Cole Porter's You'd be so nice to come home to (solos all, regulation fours). Dvorak's Going Home by way of a Stanley Turrentine arrangement (Turrentine is one of Vasilis' favourite saxophonists) heard our London resident Greek tenor player in stupendous form (scribbled notes consisted of one word - 'WOW!'). Switching to flute, Vasilis impressed again, as did Steve Hanley (brushes in hand) with a commanding solo. Not to be outdone, Andy Champion landed a knockout solo of his own on Memories of Home (comp. V. Xenopoulos). To close out a marvellous first set the quartet blazed a trail on VX's Dexterology.

The interval: another pint of Theakston's and, wait for it, a winning raffle ticket three times on the bounce! Your correspondent bagged one prize (an Ike Quebec CD) and declined to take the others (the raffle meister re-drawing the tickets). 

Second set, more of the same, ie. stellar playing from a stellar quartet. On the Street Where You Live featured VX in stunning form, a torrent of fleeting quotes peppering a majestic tenor sax solo. Paul's London Lockdown featured its composer and, playing soprano sax, Vasilis. Setting up a Coltrane groove, Vasilis played his socks off, one punter exclaimed: He's the boy! 

PE's The Coast sounded better than ever, The Folks Who Live on the Hill the evening's ballad highlight, then, to finish, the title track of the Xenopoulos-Edis album, A Narrow Escape. An encore? You bet! Vasilis said they'd go out on a blues. A blues by way of TS Monk. This was world class jazz here in Darlington. Saturday (Oct. 15) the show moves up the road to St Cuthbert's Centre in Crook (Abbie Finn replaces Steve Hanley) and on Sunday the 'up north' tour concludes in Newcastle at the Jazz Co-op on Railway Street. Saturday or Sunday (both?!), don't miss these guys!  Russell