Albert Hills Wright (alto sax); Finn Carter (piano); Michael Dunlop (double bass); David Adsett (drums)
Jazz-folk, folk-jazz, jazz-infused folk, folk-infused jazz...labels, don't you just love 'em? The one name we knew, London exiled local lad Michael Dunlop, wrote most of the material played this evening by the Bede Trio or to be precise the Bede Trio 'plus one'. Originally billed as a trio gig, Michael thought it a good idea to invite along drummer David Adsett.
Other than a pre-pandemic gig with Ruth Lambert and a post-pandemic stint with Paul Edis' A Jazzy Christmas shows playing double bass, we knew Michael as an electric bassist. This evening, leading the Bede Trio, it would be double bass all the way. A first observation, Michael gets a big, ringing sound from his instrument. Announcing song titles appeared to be of little importance to our bandleader, the emphasis was on the tunes and their inspiration, in essence the Northumbrian landscape with, perhaps, a Nordic influence.
The trio's nominal frontman, Albert Hills Wright, didn't engage in grandstanding solos, that wasn't his thing. Indeed solos across the quartet were limited, brief and, more than anything, subsumed by the band's collective sound. Pianist Finn Carter, at times fleet-of-finger, coaxed a Fender Rhodes-like sound from the Jazz Co-op's digital piano, drummer David Adsett punctuating here and there, rattling across his kit.
The Breamish performed as a Hills Wright-Michael Dunlop duo worked well, otherwise it was an evening of music performed by the expanded Bede Trio (the 'plus one' quartet). It would be good to hear Michael Dunlop again, either with the Bede Trio or in an entirely different context. Keep an eye out - and an ear open - for Michael Dunlop. Russell
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