Dean Stockdale Quartet: Celebrating Oscar @ Hampstead Jazz Club - Sept. 20

Dean Stockdale (piano); Tim Williams (guitar); Asaf Tal (double bass); Gaz Hughes (drums)

Dean Stockdale is currently touring his 'Celebrating Oscar' concert set. Sold out dates in Belfast, Dublin and St Ives won standing ovations. Now it was time to hit London. On a rainy night in leafy Hampstead, pianist Stockdale arrived at the Duke of Hamilton in good time to chill out ahead of an eight o'clock start. 

In due course Stockdale's sidemen arrived (all four had driven from St Ives) and, like the top pros they are, set up without any fuss. Stockdale was able to travel without a keyboard - twenty four hours earlier St Ives' piano served him well, this evening the house Kawai was at his disposal. 

The 'Celebrating Oscar' quartet showed one change - with bassist Gavin Barras otherwise engaged, Asaf Tal would prove to be a more than capable dep. Seeing the charts for the first time a little more than twenty four hours earlier, it was quite something to witness/hear his performance. Sight-reading as he went, Tal was hugely impressive.

Peterson's Blues Etude opened this Hampstead Jazz Club engagement. Some gigs are 24-carat, guaranteed, this was one of them. Guitarist Tim Williams is some player! Herb Ellis, Barney Kessel, Joe Pass rolled into one, Williams put his own, indelible stamp on proceedings. Drummer Gaz Hughes had everything covered, listening, anticipating, responding to every nuanced move. 

Snug and dry in the cellar of Hampstead Jazz Club, out on the street it was a very different matter. A downpour of biblical proportions left the streets awash, vehicles wading through one metre deep floodwaters. We would worry about that later, for now the jazz took priority.

Bossa Beguine, a wonderful reading of Have You Met Miss Jones?, Norrie's Nocturne, a sparkling Nigerian Marketplace and more, there can be few, if any, musicians paying homage to Oscar Peterson better than Dean Stockdale. In turn dynamic, stately, tasteful, 'Celebrating Oscar' is a winner. Jazz clubs everywhere, book Stockdale's quartet and you should attract a full house. What more could you want?! The Dean Stockdale Quartet went out in some style going to town on OP's Night Train.  

The Dean Stockdale Quartet will return to London on Sunday (Sept. 24) to reprise 'Celebrating Oscar' at Toulouse Lautrec. Londoners - and its many visitors - be there! Russell