The Gideon Tazelaar Quartet @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth - Oct 21

© Ken Drew

Gideon Tazelaar (tenor sax); Joe Steels (guitar); Arnie Somogyi (double bass); John Hirst (drums)

A first opportunity to catch tenor saxophonist Gideon Tazelaar. Funding from the Dutch authorities ensured the Julliard graduate's UK tour would be financially viable and this Blyth Music School concert would be the first of two performances today.

Bassist Arnie Somogyi has been working on an Ellington project which will be recorded next week.* Recruiting guitarist Joe Steels and drummer John Hirst to play the northern dates - Blyth and Blaydon - guaranteed the material would get a good workout. A set of just forty five minutes made for a lean performance comprising five numbers. Tazelaar's secure, straight-down-the-middle tenor playing on In a Mellotone set the tone, this was going to be a joyful three quarters of an hour. 

© Patti

A new Arnie Somogyi composition, so new it's yet to be given a title, was counted in as a 'blues shuffle'. That 'straight-down the-middle' tenor sax sound poured forth. As the sun streamed through the window on Seaforth Street the only thing missing was a late night setting - and a beer or two.** Ellington's Don't You Know I Care? served as the set's one ballad performance - and what a performance it was! 

The local lads - Joe Steels and John Hirst - more than played their respective parts, the meeting of four like minds, jazz the common language. Somogyi made reference to Stan Getz's bossa tenor saxophone on The Shadow of Your Smile, the Gideon Tazelaar Quartet played it. Time was almost up, but not before Somogyi introduced his 'rhythm changes a la Duke or something'. In other words, another tune without a title. Here at the Yamaha Music School, Gideon Tazelaar let Arnie Somogyi do the talking, the Dutchman preferring to let his tenor sax speak for him, then some!  

  

* Eastbourne Performance, recorded at the Congress Theatre on 1 December 1973 was the last of Duke Ellington's concert performances to subsequently be made available for commercial release. Somogyi's tale of a rescued Steinway piano is a gem. Hear him recount it at a gig near you.

** The Gideon Tazelaar Quartet's second gig of the day is this evening at Blaydon Jazz Club. The Black Bull on Bridge Street is the place to be, arrive in good time for an eight o'clock start. It's a tenner at the door. It's going to be a good one! Russell