Thoughts on our first gig in eons, it seems
I should have written this two weeks ago. Stunning gig. What a wonderful way to start off Fleece Jazz after a year and a half of no live jazz. And independently of that, this gig was a cracker! I was so enthralled that I forgot I was supposed to take notes. I can say that Cannonball would have been very pleased. What they did was paint a picture of the depth of the man as well as the music he played and wrote. And of course, the musicianship was superb. One way of judging a band is to see…
The Joy of Lockdown – 7 April 2020
Boy, do I miss the music. It looks like it will be a while before Fleece Jazz can be up and running again. We promise you great music when we do. In the meantime, You can keep your ears attuned to jazz by listening to our very own Gerry England’s Jazz Grooves. on Ipswich Community Radio,Thursday Nights from 8pm to 10pm. If I cannot sleep, I put on the Fleece Jazz Facebook Channel. There are people all over putting up lovely music from their homes, and some collaborations at a distance too. Examples: Alina Bzhezhinska on harp; Pete Oxley and…
The Oxley Meier Guitar Project – 6 March 2020
Wonderful, varied music, musicianship from all four musicians to die for. This evening full of fun and joy was brought to us by Nicolas Meier & Pete Oxley on lots of guitars, Raph Mizraki on basses and hand drum, and Paul Cavaciuti on drums and music stand. After the gig, you could see the audience float home, and the smiles on the faces of the musicians. About guitars, Pete had an acoustic and a rock 6 string and a 7 string. Nicolas had 5 guitars, fretted and unfretted 12 and 6 string instruments. I have forgotten what the other one…
Tim Whitehead Quartet – 28 February 2020
Again, I wasn’t there. I came to rig, and was there for the sound check/rehearsal, but had to leave before the show. All reports on the gig say it was terrific. I am very sorry I missed it. I did get a taste in the sound check In fact the sound check is a good indicator to the enjoyability of the gig itself. First Jonathan Gee sits down at the piano and puts it through its paces. The man is full of style and flair. There was some new music for which he wanted to get the head rhythms just…
Georgia Mancio Quartet – 21 February 2020
This should have been called the Georgia Mancio & Kate Williams Quartet as many of the songs were co-written by the two. But perhaps that would be unfair to the wonderful accompaniment and soloing of Julie Walkington and Dave Ohm. Georgia was on vocals/whistle/scat/sprechen-singen, Kate on piano, Julie on bass and Dave on Drums I keep banging on about vocalists whose production, phrasing and timbre show a love of the words. In Georgia’s case it must partially be because she is a lyricist, writing lyrics for many of the songs with Kate or Alan Broadbent. There was one by Julie,…