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| (© Pam) |
Andrew
McCormack (piano); Kyle Eastwood (bass); Rod Youngs (drums)
The signs in the
Glasshouse on Sunday night directed all those in pork pie hats, roll neck
jumpers, posh frocks and co-respondents shoes to the left and the big room for
the Postmodern Jukebox whilst those of us more modestly attired to sit in the
dark turned right to Sage 2 in search of more contemporary sounds.
Apparently it was 2014 when McCormack was last here (as the photo on THIS PAGE attests) and 2011 when Eastwood brought a group to that year’s Jazz Festival. Tonight’s gig was mainly in support of McCormack’s fine 2022 album, Terra Firma and nearly all the music was from that.
Opener Brooklyn Memoir, was a pastoral blues with a slightly sinister edge; McCormack’s solo is full of '60s snap and zest, Eastwood plays a swinging funky bass and Youngs drives powerfully from the back, (musically, if not geographically).
Confirmation is a Charlie Parker tune with swinging flurries in
McCormack’s dancing, witty, Peterson-esque solo that sounds as if it had been
transposed from one of Parker’s own solos. Eastwood carries that joy and swing
into his solo. Local lad Sting gets the writers credit for Fragile, the
next piece. McCormack and Eastwood share the melody with the bass shadowing the
piano and completing the lines. It’s lush, romantic and, yes, fragile, Eastwood
developing melodies of his own, climbing and surrounding McCormack’s piano
lines. An intricate knotty piano solo builds to a climactic pounding before a
return to the delicacy of the opening line of the song.
McCormack described Somebody Else’s Song as both his
greatest hit on streaming services and one that he was sure someone else had
also written. It’s a pastoral folk tune, relaxed and delicate, full of
nostalgia for simpler times; the piano is supported by waves of cymbals
conjured up by Youngs’ brush work.
Fake News raises the temperature from its opening skittering drums and cymbals and driving bass with McCormack throwing out musical shapes and shards. It’s all angles with Youngs dropping bombs to power it along behind McCormack’s percussive solo. Youngs assembles a solo from spare snatches into rolling thunder and lightning strikes of cymbals before a series of short delicate runs from McCormack bring it home.
Clementine Dream is an elegant waltz, perhaps the second
cousin of Someday My Prince Will Come, and sounds like a show
tune. McCormack’s playing is dense, packed with flurries of notes; Youngs
playing is so closely in step with him. Better to Have Loved is
an elegy for those lost in the pandemic. Eastwood opens with a long solo before
he leaves the floor to McCormack whose dense, rich solo is laden with tragedy.
Youngs eschews the sticks and plays the kit with his hands. It sounds like it
belongs in the classical repertoire and, whilst a jazz mood begins to dominate,
it is still stark and spare with a funereal closing passage.
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| (© Pam) |
Before the main event we had a short, unaccompanied set from local saxophonist Thomas Dixon. He elicited collective ‘ohs’ and ‘oohs’ when he came on stage and cracked his knuckles before he started. Opening on tenor with a series of low pitched rumbles, he uses the keys of the instrument as his percussive accompaniment as the tune unfurls like leaves in Spring. He climbs up the scales to a series of piercing staccato flurries of notes, short phrases that wouldn’t sound so stark and radical as part of a band.
At one point he removes the neck from the instrument and plays a mournful solo into the cupped palm of his hand. His second piece is on alto. A dancing Mexican-tinged piece opening with quick fire shots in the dark, it also incorporates some fine blues wailing. Third and last sees him back on tenor and sees him transition from a swinging opening, through some intense scrappling flurries to building up to a closing wail. Dave Sayer
1 comment :
Great review of a tremendous gig and nice to finally meet the prolific Dave Sayer, always enjoy your words.
Pam x
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