Notes on Past Gigs

This page contains notes and thoughts about gigs, written a day or two after the gig. Administrative posts are also shown.

Please click on “Full posting” for each gig to see the photo and full text.

You can search on year, musician’s name or gig title.

Thoughts on Vasilis Xenopoulos & Paul Edis Quartet – Feels Like Home, 11 September 2024

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…

Thoughts on Tony Kofi and the Organisation, 28 August 2024

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,…

Thoughts on The Oddgeir Berg Trio, 14 August 2024

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…

Thoughts on Theo Travis’ Double Talk – 24 July 2024

Steve said: For all the right reasons, it is a struggle to articulate the sensation caused by Theo Travis’ Doubletalk as they returned to Fleece Jazz for the first time in just over seven years. The music was an emotional rollercoaster and, at times, completely overwhelming in its intensity. Judging from the wild applause, as well as the whoops and the cries of delight from our highly appreciative audience after almost every number, I was far from alone in feeling this way. The gospel-tinged organ sound of Pete Whittaker that introduced the first number, ‘Ascending’, soon opens up for Theo…

Thoughts on Cal Tjader/Stan Getz Sextet, Album Tribute – 10 July 2024

In tribute to the 1958 “West Coast Cool” recording of the Cal Tjader and Stan Getz sextet, Mark Crooks and Nat Steele treated us to an enjoyable selection of jazz standards and Tjader originals.  Mark described what we heard from the first three numbers as a “listenable dynamic” with a “lack of racket” and indeed it was; a welcome antidote to what was taking place simultaneously in Dortmund. Bracing and calming like the best of West Coast, the album itself is a hidden gem and a real cool classic with a simply incredible line-up including pianist Vince Guaraldi, guitarist Eddie…