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| © Pam |
If it’s the third Friday in the month, it’s Jazz at the Lit and Phil’s lunchtime concert. These concerts are sold out well in advance and almost 100 people took their seats this Friday afternoon. Quite often the musicians have travelled far and wide to get to Newcastle but today all the musicians have either studied, worked or are resident here, so they were playing to a home crowd. (Russ Morgan lived and worked in Newcastle for several years before relocating to the Kingdom of Fife a couple of years ago from where he travelled today) Regular audience members will have seen each of them in various other combinations at these concerts over the years and in this guise as recently as March when they played the Black Bull, Blaydon.
The band kicked off with Herbie Hancock’s One Finger Snap and we were plunged into what a previous reviewer called a ‘modern jazz storm’. Kenny Garrett’s Wayne’s Thang followed with its insistent drum and bass rhythms. John Scofield’s Don’t Shoot The Messenger saw Mark Williams and Harry Keeble shine while a beautifully melodic bass solo introduced Pat Metheny’s Soul Cowboy, a number which allowed Russ Morgan to show what a musical drummer he is.
Other numbers included A Thousand Ships, a piece penned by Julian Nicholas - a friend of Russ - Marc Johnson’s Union Pacific with a solo by Mark Williams which brought thunderous applause, and to top it all the surprise appearance of Zoë Gilby who sang Carl Fischer’s You Changed, a Billie Holliday classic. Sylvia
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