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| © Ken Drew |
Raymond MacDonald (alto sax, vocals, whistling); Andy Champion (double bass, electronics) Upstairs at the Globe, Monday night, mid-January. The clan (the tightly-packed audience) would listen intently to two improvised solo sets followed by an improvised duo finale. The participants - Tyneside's Andy Champion and Scotland's Raymond MacDonald - were reunited in this one-off gathering.
Bassist Andy Champion opened proceedings with an assured performance: virtuosic 'conventional' jazz bass and sonorous bowed sections combining/competing with pulsating electronic sheets of sound.
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| © Ken Drew |
Shortly after stepping off a train at Newcastle Central Station, Raymond MacDonald addressed his Railway Street audience with a lengthy exposition of his current practice. The pibroch (a theme and variation played on bagpipes) would be central to his solo performance of twenty minutes or so. Playing alto sax, not bagpipes (!), MacDonald deployed circular breathing to its fullest extent to create a mesmerising sound world: short phrases, often executed at lightning speed, seemingly endless variations, the very essence of the piece.
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| © Ken Drew |
Glasses recharged (Hobgoblin Ruby), the third of three short sets brought together Champion and MacDonald. Freely improvised, our duo conjured a performance out of thin air with not so much as a nod between the two. A fleeting hint of Ellington/Strayhorn, a recurring bluesy motif, MacDonald singing and whistling, Mingus roaring, the MacDonald-Champion pairing worked a treat. Perhaps they should do it again sometime. Russell
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