Sunday Night @ the Globe: Gerry Richardson's Big Idea - Feb. 8

© Sheila Herrick

Gerry Richardson (organ, vocals); Dave Hignett, Mark Webb (trumpets); David 'Showtime' Gray (trombone); Garry Linsley (alto  sax); Stuart Johnson (tenor/soprano sax); Sue Ferris (tenor/baritone sax, flute); Rod Sinclair (guitar); Paul Smith (drums)

You wait seven years for a Big Idea gig then three come at once! October 2025, February 2026 and July 2026 may not actually come at once but in the overall timescale of things it does seem so. Not that I'm complaining, the nine piece soul/funk/jazz/blues outfit never fail to impress and I doubt if anyone at last night's full house session at the Globe would disagree.

Opening up with their signature tune, Stone Church, the Big Idea didn't come on with all guns blazing, just enough to whet our appetites for what we knew was in the pipeline. The temperature rose with Rod Sinclair's solo on Blue For Big Red, Ska Odyssey featured Stuart Johnson on tenor and David Gray on trombone. I got the feeling that Showtime was chomping at the bit - his day would come. His day did indeed come after Sue on tenor and Garry on alto had worked out on Gerry's tribute to Abdullah Ibrahim - Brand New Bag.

© Sheila Herrick

The turn around came on The Turnaround. In the blink of an eyelid what had been enjoyable, without making the earth move, suddenly erupted! We now knew how Joshua felt on the Jericho gig and the Jazz Co-op hierarchy must have been thinking 'bang goes another thirty grand' as the brass unleashed the power. The wild man of the trombone's slide was steaming, Sue Ferris practically blew the baritone inside out, Stuart was more restrained on tenor and Rod wasn't restrained on Telecaster. Meanwhile, at the keyboard with the pedals and the world at his feet, Gerry was making like McDuff, McGriff and "McSmith" rolled into one driven on by the corps of drums that is Paul Smith.  

A vocal by Gerry on Lady Day and John Coltrane was followed by Take the Tee  Train and the interval and the rush to the bar.

© Russell

The second set opened up with a Gerry original (most of them are) a love song, no less. So Many Reasons For Staying Together had another vocal and an alto solo from Garry who also provided the title of the next number - Another Dark One. Nice flute solo from Sue.

One of the good old good ones: Jimmy Witherspoon's Times Are Getting Tougher Than Tough almost became even tougher when one of the horns came in too soon. However, the ship was soon steadied and the miscreant made up for it with a great solo.

Sue  had a rather lovely flute feature on the cleverly named Song of the Ferris. We were now in the home straight although nobody wanted to go home. All About McGriff had solos all round, African Sunset featured Paul Smith, Autumn in the Barrio had a Latin feel and Tower of Cheddar was sandwiched in between the latter and Night Train.

Quite a night! I can't wait for July. Lance