Mejedi Owusu with the Francis Tulip Trio @ Sunderland Minster - July 17

Mejedi Owusu (trumpet); Francis Tulip (guitar); Tommy Fuller (double bass); Noah Stone (drums)

A second gig of the day for Mejedi Owusu (NYC), Francis Tulip (London), Tommy Fuller (Basel) and Noah Stone (Oxfordshire). A sold out lunchtime concert at Newcastle's Lit & Phil couldn't have gone any better and it would take something special here at Sunderland Minster to top it. 

The Lit & Phil gig confirmed how we imagined things would go: extended solos, principally by Mejedi Owusu and/or Francis Tulip, supported by the stellar rhythm section of Tommy Fuller and Noah Stone. Three or four numbers each set, their solos works of art, Mejedi firing from the lip with endless invention, Francis cruising in the fast lane, a match for any six-stringer.

Woody 'n' You opened the programme, the Minster's (jazz) congregation gobsmacked at the brilliance of it all. Benny Golson's Along Came Betty (later in the evening we would hear Golson's Stablemates), Body and Soul (Mejedi the balladeer!), four of the finest musicians around, in the space of forty five minutes they had won themselves a whole new boatload of fans. 

Second set, the aforementioned Stablemates. Scribbled notes read: M + F solos. WOW!!! Translating to: Mejedi solo, Francis solo, WOW!!! On to Kenny Dorham's Prince Albert, more of the WOW!!! Trane's Straight Street with Noah Stone's drum solo - WOW!!! And to close, Bird's Bluebird. The Lit & Phil was a hard act to follow. This Sunderland Minster concert more than matched it. Tomorrow's third of five regional (Tyneside/Wearside/Northumberland) gigs at Claypath Deli in Durham will have it all to do. Russell