Dean Masser Quartet @ the Railway, Stockport - April 7

(© Jeff Pritchard)

Dean Masser (tenor sax); Richard Wetherall (piano); Gavin Barras (bass); Gaz Hughes (drums).

The last visit I made to the Railway was a week ago to hear the Mike Hall Quartet and there were some similarities that are worthy of mention. Once again Richard Wetherall was seated at the house upright piano and the tune that Dean chose to start the show with was the same tune that Mike Hall picked to close his show with which was I Hear A Rhapsody. Another tune that was played on both gigs was Lover Man which Dean played at a slower tempo than Mike’s uptempo version. This weekend I heard vocalist Vanessa Rubin do this tune when I tuned into the live podcast from Mezzrow's and this was also an interesting version.

As well as being a first class tenor player Dean is also a composer and tonight he featured four of his compositions, The one I liked the most was Stirling Work which was inspired by Dean’s fondness for the tunes of Horace Silver. This had a Latin feel to it and had some great bass and drums interplay from Gavin and Gaz who kept things grooving along.  Gavin was very impressive during Lover Man when he took a sixteen bar solo using his bow to good effect. 

Gaz Hughes is well suited to this quartet and when Dean ups the energy level or changes the tempo Gaz knows just what to do. A good example of this was the closing tune, the tricky Bud Powell composition Webb City. This had everyone blowing up a storm at breakneck tempo and I got to thinking where else can you hear such great modern jazz with no admission charge and beer at reasonable prices? 

Next jazz night at the Railway is Tuesday April 9 with tenorman Mike Hope with the Paul Hartley Quartet. Mike Farmer

 

I Hear a Rhapsody; Well Read; Back Chat; Stirling Work; Lover Man; There Will Never be Another You; I Thought About You; Time For Bread; Untitled Blues; Recorda Me; Webb City.