Ben Sidran Quartet @ Cafe Central, Madrid May 23

Ben Sidran (piano); Bill McHenry (saxo tenor); Billy Peterson (contrabaja); Leo Sidran (bateria)

I guess I am one of the few people who still actually buys a hard copy of the Lonely Planet guide when I am going on holiday, although I am sure it is available as an app (or something similar) for more tech savvy members of the human race. However, the title of the guides must be one of the most out of date concepts imaginable (due in part, of course, to its own success). No doubt the Sunday Times has already had articles listing the ten most ‘lonely’ places to have a wild party and I am sure if I took a Ryanair flight to the dark side of the moon the first person I would bump into would be one of the Mooneys who lived in the next street to where I grew up in Dublin.

However, during a brief stay in Madrid on the way to places further south, the solid, tactile paperback came up with some useful information. In its listing of local bars and cafes it happened to mention that the Cafe Central also had regular jazz gigs and it turned out the location of this cafe in Plaza del Angel was only five minutes from our hotel. A quick look at its web site revealed that there were shows at 8pm and 10pm and as it was 9.15 everything was hunky dory. The fact that I hadn’t heard of the quartet that was performing was no problem as the list of international jazz musicians I haven’t heard of is (sadly) extensive.

At the door I did make a gentle query about the entrance fee of 27 euros but the person taking the money responded instantly in perfect English saying ‘he’s American, very good and well worth the price’. All statements that turned out to be totally correct.

The band was the Ben Sidran Quartet and firstly I must apologise to Mr Sidran by saying that despite the fact he had been playing and recording for 60 years I was not familiar with his work, even though I claim to be a jazz fan. However the loss has been entirely mine.

This was a great gig. Ben Sidran is an excellent piano player and entertainer. He writes many of his own songs and performs them beautifully.

The first piece was an instrumental version of Little Sherri by Charlie Rouse and immediately illustrated the relaxed compatibility between the piano and the rhythm section. Apparently Sidran has been playing with the bass player, Billy Peterson since the year dot and even though he is relatively speaking a youngster, the drummer had been playing (in all senses of the word) with the band leader for even longer. This is not unrelated to the fact that he is his son, Leo Sidran.

I don’t know how long the saxophone player, Bill McHenry, has been with the group (or the familial relationships) but it was immediately clear that he is a great musician too.

Having settled down to enjoy an evening of instrumental jazz I was then pleasantly surprised and delighted to find that many of the following songs included vocals by Sidran. There were wry and gently ironic songs musing on age, Who’s the Old Guy Now?, reflections on the original hipster period and lifestyle Don’t Cry for No Hipster. One Day, Baby had some fine sax playing by McHenry.

Just as I was thinking to myself ‘what does this music remind me of?’, Sidran launched into a number I would never have expected to hear at a jazz gig - a jazz version of  Dylan’s Subterranean Homesick Blues. Then I got it. This was music built on Lenny Bruce raps, Jack Kerouac reading his poems over jazz piano, Dylan and as I was to read later, Mose Allison. In an article Sidran describes his admiration for Allison by saying he was not a singer who played the piano but ‘a piano player who sang’ - a subtle difference but an important one.

Sidran had more surprises to finish the set with. He started a gentle rap about three shoemakers and I thought ‘Okay, this is one of those old Jewish tales of wisdom and acceptance’, but then he moved on to talk about Frederico Garcia Lorca and to sing in Spanish. I couldn’t quite hear if this was one of Lorca’s poems or a song about the poet but it was a very nice piece and he also mentioned that there was a statue to Lorca in the square near by. A very appropriate tribute to his Spanish hosts.

The encore was (I think) a beautiful version of A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square with just the piano and saxophone.

Muy bueno, Senor Sidran y amigos. JC

(PS. I did, of course, consult the extensive BSH archive for references to Ben Sidran and was impressed to find a number of mentions. Some reviewers noted that the title of the Miles Davis tune ‘Nardis’ was an anagram of Sidran but it wasn’t clear whether this was because it was dedicated to him or a coincidence. It is hard to tell since Miles wrote the tune in 1958 and Sidran was born in 1943. But then maybe the 1954 Sonny Rollins tune ‘Oleo’ was a positive prediction of Sidran Jr.). CJ