Notes on Past Gigs

I often find that the guitar/piano combination is a little muddy, as they both live in the same sonic area. On Friday we had two stunning players, no mud in sight: each instrument rang out clearly. Chris Allard‘s Band was Chris on guitar, Ross Stanley on piano, Oli Hayhurst on bass and Nick Smalley on drums. They played some of Chris’s tunes, a few standards, each sufficiently extended to allow lots of blowing time. We were treated to some great solos from all four of them. Ross first, because he epitomized the magic that non-musicians like me can never figure…

Fleece Jazz tries to provide variety with excellent musicianship, and we had a winner again last Friday. Gill Manly’s superb voice and wide ranging choice of material was beautifully supported by Trevor Hyatt on mandola, guitar, backing and up front vocals, and Thomas Coffey on guitar and backing vocals. Gill did some backing vocal work too: what a team! The audience loved her. The problem is that there were far too few of you. Gill;s theory that every culture has its equivalent of the blues, whether happy or sad, was the guiding force in the design of the set list….

When John Law comes to Fleece Jazz, you expect something different. The opening number was the Kyrie from Rossini’s “Little Solemn Mass”. It is a piece for choir and piano. We got the piano intro, and then bass and sax took the part of the choir. The solos all felt true to the original music. The word “stunning” gets overused, particularly by me. It was really stunning. John Law played piano and Rhodes keyboard, Sam Crockatt played tenor and soprano saxes, Yuri Goloubev played bass, and Billy Weir played drums and glockenspiel., in an evening of recreated songs. As well…