John Garner & John Pope @ Cafe Oto, Dalston – August 6

(© Pam)

John Garner (violin); John Pope (double bass)

The advertised “doors” time for this gig was 7.30pm, so perhaps we shouldn’t have been surprised when, arriving at 7.15pm, we found a queue stretching right across the front of the building out in the street. We were though (surprised) because this, after all, was a queue for a Newcastle duo playing its first ever gig at one of London’s most prestigious small venues for creative music.

Having not reserved our places in advance and having seen what that would have meant two nights earlier at Cafe Oto’s near Dalston neighbour, the Vortex (i.e. no admission), we quit philosophising and joined the queue.

Just as well that we did too since, though it wasn’t quite a matter of taking out all the tables as at the Vortex, the two Johns were greeted by a very very healthy house indeed. And my how they deserved it!

In the first set the two missionaries from the North treated the congregation to five varied pieces beginning with Jeanne Lee’s Newswatch, followed by Jimmy Garrison’s Ascendance, Albert Ayler’s Ghosts, a mash up of Monk’s Straight No Chaser with an Anthony Braxton piece and finishing with Carla Bley’s The Kitchen. Every time they paused for an announcement it was greeted with warm applause and whoops which in a new venue was clearly a real pleasure for the duo.

Intermission time saw a healthy queue at the merch table where both musicians had their music on sale.

After the break Messrs Garner and Pope returned with their extremely impressive – respectively – bowed to pizzicato and arco to plucked improvisations on compositions by Ornette Coleman, Alice Coltrane, Don Cherry and Misha Mengelberg.

Introducing a non-musical note into the evening, John Garner reminded us that this Sunday marked 78 years since the dropping of the Atomic bomb on Hiroshima. He invited us to remember those who died there as he and John played a Japanese piece titled Cherry Blossom.

The evening wound up with one of John Pope’s own compositions, Ing, and with the duo obliging the audience’s demand for an encore by bowing out with Ornette Coleman’s Blues Connotation.

On the way back to our temporary “home” for the week we re-lived the pleasures of the evening and marvelled at how blessed we are in our relatively small Northern city with all our fine creative jazz musicians. Pam & Dave