Notes on Past Gigs

When Art Themen, Pete Whittaker and George Double roll into the club we are always due for a treat. Last night they caught fire and produced a wonderful evening. I will get to the music in a moment, but it is important to note that presentation is an important part of entertainment. Art’s acerbic comments in his bass voice about his colleagues and other comments were very funny. Who thought of Pete as being a serious ecclesiastic? More importantly, he told us simply and accurately the names and (a few times with help), their composer. Thank you. And one cannot…

Pete Oxley’s Flight of Hand, 2nd November 2022– by Steve Jordan It seems so long ago that Pete Oxley last brought his splendid collection of guitars to Fleece Jazz.  It was, in fact, March 2020 with the Oxley-Meier Guitar Project and then the week after that we went into lockdown and live jazz at the Fleece was off-limits for a whole 18 months.  It was so good to have him back this Wednesday with an amazing band of musicians. The combination of guitar and piano can be too much like a sandwich with a filling of breadcrumbs: two chordal instruments…

There is a rule. If the band is having a good time, the audience will be having a good time. We had a great time, we did.  Vasilis, Ross, Simon and Steve were eager to get back to music they had not played for some time. Their eagerness was increased by a wait for three of them on the cursed A12, but they were all daisy fresh and ready to rock. They made us happy right away with Gordon’s “Evergreenish”.  We got our first taste of wonderful musicianship from all four, and the intense listening among them was very visible to…

Antonio  Forcione gave us a most  masterful,  joyous and beautifully presented gig on solo guitar and in duo with a drummer who wasn’t there. in the second half, he played Mancini’s “The Cool Cat”, and asked us to imagine that a fine drummer was to his right. The drummer did the intro, then accompanied Antonio. The two traded 4s. At the end when Antonio gestured to his right, we all applauded the drummer. I was sure he was using brushes and Antoni agrees, sticks would be too loud for a solo guitarist. Let’s amplify some of those adjectives: Masterful: Antonio…

We had to wait a whole month for this gig. It was hugely worth it, a wonderful gig.  We had Joel Barford powerful on drums, Ross Stanley world class on the Hammond B3, Vasilis Xenopoulos on tenor and Nigel Price leading on guitar. They have been on tour for a while, so they are very tight together, but are still having a ton of fun with the music. It was mostly music by or loved by Wes Montgomery. So we had world class music played by stunning musicians having a great time. The gig was called “Wes Re Imagined”. Nigel…