I first
encountered Jamil Sheriff sometime last century as part of a Pat McCarthy Octet
at Scarborough Jazz Festival, all of whom came back later in the festival as
part of a Jamil Sheriff Octet. I had the good fortune to win his debut album in
a raffle that weekend and have followed him ever since through expansion (big
band album Icthyology) and
contraction (the trio album Places Like
This) and even a concept album (Rafe’s
Dilemma). He has turned into regular visitor to this area playing Hexham
this afternoon, the Globe tonight and back on Wednesday in Corbridge
accompanying singer Lauren Bush.
So what of today? The drummer arrived late from Venice and was being refreshed and re-fortified courtesy of the local branch of that fine chef, Gregory. Jamil had to borrow a keyboard, (the drums were borrowed too). The gig took place in a library, (my first) so if the attention wandered you could pick the latest Richard Osman off the shelf. (Spoiler alert: the rabbit did it, in the shrubbery, with a carrot).
Calmforth, from Icthyology was the opener, gently rolling and stripped of the big band bombast, coloured by bouncing counter melodies on keys and tenor, it conjures up a pastoral idyll, lyrical elegant and wistful. American Dream followed sounding like it belonged on the soundtrack from a non-noir 1930s' film back when some of America’s greatest composers were working in film; elegant and flowing, open and spacious it evokes (deceptively) simpler times with Walsh ticking over at the back with only the occasional propulsive roll. The band rolls into Cut From Stone (?) led by the bass as Walsh drives from the back and the tenor floats above. Jamil’s solo is angles and probing questions, but it’s optimistic, warm and welcoming. A tightly wound, charging tenor solo works out a path through. Walsh adds more propulsive energy whilst a simple 4 note motif on the bass keeps digging away. Quintana brings in Homecoming with a solo full of flourishes. It’s a gentle, wistful blues to which Teimoori adds all sorts of flavour, from a dense full sound to higher piercings and bundles of notes and blues swing. There’s some Brubeck in Sheriff’s playing but there is something more modern contemporary too, beyond the jazz spectrum. An unaccompanied tenor solo of lovely, pure, round notes echoes round the hall, (it’s a very high ceiling for a library). A broken fragmented piano solo breaks into something more romantic that breaks again and revives in turn.
Title track
from new album, The Debt, is based on
a drum pattern from New Guinea, a 4 groove that morphs into a 12 groove, Jamil
explains, as he invites us to clap along. The piece flows between the two and
Walsh fills the gaps in anyway. Temoori’s solo incorporates some elegant
boulevardian swing and punctuates that with the 12 groove.
The second set
opens with the relaxed rhythm and blues of Straight
Talk with the sax ringing out like church bells while Walsh rattles along
in the background providing punctuation. It’s open and expansive with a
pastoral feel. The spare, fragile Innocence
was written at the time of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and feels like
it is barely holding together. The fragility is emphasised by the closing
tumble of notes. Apparently, Wharfedale has a Goddess, and she is called Verbeia. The piece opens with chiming
cymbals and develops into a full widescreen sound with some heavy duty bass and
a fluid sax before it settles into an easy swinging groove. The free opening of
The Contortionist is all angles, Sheriff and Teimoori climb together up the scales and chase each other around
as Walsh launches a battery of percussion, with sudden full stops and cymbals
splashes. It’s a return to Ukraine for the closer, Rebuild, with its optimistic note that predates Trump's attempt to
develop a free-market led peace deal. That’s the problem with art; real life
keeps getting in the way.
This has been
a concert of very human music, if that doesn’t sound too pretentious/daft. Rich
and round (perhaps it’s the northern-ness) and slightly left of mainstream. I
suspect it will be equally well received down at the Globe later. Dave Sayer
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