Mark Williams (guitar); Paul Susans (bass); John Bradford (drums)
A hint of autumn, the nights drawing in, Sunderland's 'Cultural Quarter' looked a picture. In the lee of the recently-opened Culture House, the Engine Room, the Fire Station, the Dun Cow, the Peacock, the Empire, Vesta Tilley's, the curry houses, all were doing good business.
Up a cobbled alley, reluctantly walking past a curry house, and into Sunderland Minster. Once inside, we were a million miles from the hustle and bustle out on High Street West. The stage set, the 'jazz' congregation began to take a pew.
The Mark Williams Trio showed one change to the regular line-up. A very-last-minute indisposed Rob Walker necessitated a phone call. Mark made the call. John Bradford was available. You could say that was a good call!
As the first set unfolded, a judicious selection of Mark's compositions alongside modern jazz standards went down well with the Old Black Cat Jazz Club audience. Finally (comp. M. Williams), Bemsha Swing (comp. Thelonious Monk & Denzil Best), the trio (guitarist Mark, bassist Paul Susans and drummer John 'Last Minute' Bradford) all nods and smiles, suggested the musicians were happy with the way things were going. Mark is usually as taciturn as it comes. This evening, our man, by his standards, would be positively garrulous! At one juncture saying to himself: Right, shut up! My Favorite Things was more M. Williams than J. Coltrane and definitely not Julie Andrews! Mark clearly likes Charlie Chaplin's Smile. Our Tyneside-resident Irishman has been known to play the tune and this evening he played it again. Mesmerising.
Don Grolnick's Nothing Personal pulled out into the fast lane. Woah, fasten your seat belts! Great stuff! The second set flew by (a sign of a good gig) and before signing off for the evening, Mark said it was time to play a blues. And play the blues they did. Russell
No comments :
Post a Comment