Alex Clarke (alto sax); Richard Wetherall (piano); Gavin Barras (double bass); Gaz Hughes (drums)
Earlier in the day Gaz Hughes and Gavin Barras were gigging up the road at Durham's Gala Theatre. Their lunchtime engagement with pianist Dean Stockdale was all about 'Celebrating Oscar', Oscar Peterson, of course. It will come as little surprise that the one hour concert on Millennium Place was a sold out affair. This evening at the Traveller's Rest in Darlington, it was all about bandleader Hughes and Barras working alongside alto saxophonist Alex Clarke and pianist Richard Wetherall.
Sadly, it didn't come as much of a surprise that this monthly Friday evening gig on West Auckland Road attracted all but a handful of punters. Ongoing administrative issues and a malfunctioning publicity machine have resulted in a marked decline in audience numbers. However, to the jazz! The Gaz Hughes Quartet arrived, set up with a minimum of fuss, time enough to 'take five' before the eight o'clock downbeat.
Choosing numbers as they went along, the quartet opened with a stupendous Sandu, Ms Clarke in scintillating form. What a start! Hughes and Barras are two thirds of the former's regular trio and 50% of Dean Stockdale's outstanding quartet. This evening they formed a fine quartet working alongside occasional band mates Clarke and Wetherall. Such was the interaction of all four musicians it was as if they were playing the final date of a lengthy nationwide tour. Drummer Hughes supplied the familiar 'ding-dong-ding' of If I Were a Bell, Clarke's take on Skylark won great applause and a varied, off-the-cuff set list went east, then west on Brooks Bowman's East of the Sun and West of the Moon.
Circumstances decreed your correspondent was obliged, albeit reluctantly, to depart during the interval. One can safely assume the second set was every bit as good as the first.
First set included the aforementioned: Sandu; If I Were a Bell; Skylark; East of the Sun and West of the Moon. Russell
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