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| © Sheila |
It was with an air of joyful anticipation that I sallied forth to the corner of Railway and Plummer where that edifice to jazz in Newcastle, the Globe, plays host to top notch bands from both near and afar.
I was particularly looking forward to last night's offering, the Eddie Gripper Trio, having found their most recent album, Americana, very pleasing albeit not what it said on the tin. The Americana that Gripper found his inspiration from was a six weeks long jaunt hitch-hiking from the northern tip of Alaska to the sweltering heat of California.
All the tracks from the album were played, preceded by introductory remarks by Gripper which helped paint a fuller picture of the background to each one.
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| © Russell |
After Alaska the next stop was Vancouver where they frolicked and cycled in Fair Beach one of the city's parks. Saynor's bass was very agile on this one.
A meet up with a friend in Oregon didn't work out as planned leading to the mournful So Long, Oregon. Saynor rosining the bow for this one.
A break from the album for a frantic bop blast on Ray Brown's Up There. The fifths were flattened the chords augmented and the spirits of Bird, Diz, Monk and Bud formed an aura above the stage. Bass and drums traded fours.
Dana stands 13,000 feet above the bright lights of California and Nevada and Gripper confessed it was the most exhausting episode of his life. The heat was searing and the fact that he was gazing down into Death Valley didn't help. Although, paradoxically, he found the climb both brutal and beautiful.
The first set finished with a solo rendition of One For the Road. A deeply personal composition with classical overtones it caught the mood of both sadness and the satisfaction of respect.
Ocean's Avenue, named after the beach road in Santa Monica got the second set off to a freewheeling start. The holiday was almost over but for us at the Globe the melody lingered on,.Not quite a happy ending. A flight was cancelled so Eddie was stuck in L.A. airport for an extra 24 hours. Terminus was the end result.
It's a Dance by Michel Petrucciani reminded me how lucky I was to have seen, at the North Sea Festival circa 1983, the wonderful French pianist who died too young The trio played another of Petrucciani' s compositions later - Hub Art.
A quirky version of The Surrey With the Fringe on top had Barrett-Donlon executing some fast and nifty brushwork before switching to sticks and causing a percussion explosion that rattled the windows and almost dispatched the rig back to Oklahoma!
To finish. Paul Simon's American Tune. Gripper spoke the words so we'd know what it was all about.
Tremendous! Lance
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