Notes on Past Gigs

Steve said: It was a pleasure to welcome back vibraphonist Roger Beaujolais to Fleece Jazz after so long and especially with the three spectacular musicians that made up the quartet. Roger was an entertaining and engaging compere throughout the performance over two sets.  He explained that the evening was a celebration of the great jazz vibes player, Milt “Bags” Jackson, who was best remembered as a member of the Modern Jazz Quartet (MJQ)  but also from his collaboration with bebop, hard bop and post-bop players. This year is also the 100th anniversary of the invention of the vibraphone and we…

Steve said: From the very first notes of the gig last night at Fleece Jazz, I knew we were in for a treat as Chris Ingham and his quartet skilfully and passionately revealed the musical legacy of the legendary songwriter, pianist and singer (as well as actor and radio personality) that was Hoagy Carmichael. For cynics and sceptics, of which I am one, our reservations evaporated when Chris wryly informed us that the promise of “Modern Jazz every fortnight” would be an empty one for this evening! Despite this, what we had was a journey through a wealth of well-crafted,…

Steve said: We have had both lead musicians at Fleece Jazz in various guises over the past few years and it is always a pleasure to welcome them back.  Their warm, intimate delivery, both verbally and musically, with a clear sense of shapely melodic ideas in their interpretation and composition, was a real treat. According to Vasilis Xenopoulos, he and Paul Edis began playing together 20 years ago, when they had both relocated to West London to study: Paul to hone his compositional skills and Vasilis to (partly) avoid compulsory military service in Greece!  Their latest recording features original music…

Dave (with some theft from Steve) says: This gig was powerful. Four guys who were masters of their instruments (and thus respected in the industry and much in demand) blew their socks off. Tony Kofi was the band leader; he brought only the baritone sax. He played it rough, a growl that went right through you. He played it sweet, in lively ballads. He loves quotes, and he can sustain a note for many bars. The technique is ‘circular breathing’. With a mouth full of air, you sustain a note while breathing in. Instantly switch to blowing from your lungs,…

Dave said: I was very much looking forward to the Oddgeir Berg Trio, and my expectations were exceeded. It was one of those gigs where you could feel the listening almost as well as you could hear the sound.  A friend asked me about the gig, and I told him that it was an easy one to rig: piano micing as usual, bass and a talk mic. Wrong. The wonderful bassist, Audun Ramo came with a set of stomp boxes and without a bass amp. Between Gerry and I, we rigged a powered monitor for him as his foldback, and…