Notes on Past Gigs

I really enjoyed this gig. Alex Clarke is a superb performer with a range of warm timbres and with proper jazz in her soul. She is also clear on the talk mic about what she is playing, which I guess is a great help to Steve Jordan when he writes the set list (see below, and thank you). I am not surprised that she attracts a back line as celebrated as Clark Tracey on drums, Dave Green on bass and Rob Barron on piano. The tone Alex produced on “Ballad for Very Sad and Very Tired Lotus Eaters” was really…

Steve Jordan described this gig as stellar, and it was in many senses. First of all, the music which was originally performed by Cannonball Adderley and John Coltrane is amazing. The sextet is certainly starry: they were Andy Panayi (tenor and soprano), Alan Barnes (alto), Steve Fishwick (trumpet and flugel), John Donaldson (piano), Simon Thorpe (bass) and Peter Cater (drums). The arrangements were gorgeous, rich and exciting with beautiful harmonies (and dissonances) and great rhythms. The playing was terrific: the timing was spot on, and the solos just engulfed one.  Andy and Alan commented on the music, but Andy was…

Superb gig, big audience, couldn’t be better. Something about the instruments: first the piano. Oddgeir Berg brought some electronics driven from a small but very good mic clipped to a bar on the open front piano. This gave Oddgeir a variety of soundscapes driven by the piano. He used his hand on the strings at times to produce a percussive sound. Mind you, while playing without the electronics, his touch is such that the full range of dynamics from softly lyrical to loud percussive was there. Audun Ramo’s bass also was driven through a stomp box set, but the changes…

This gig’s review is from Robert Carr of the Hadleigh Nub News. All of the pictures from the gig are on our gallery page Take care, Dave A fun night with Jivin’ Miss Daisy at Fleece Jazz By Robert Carr With blizzard conditions making travelling difficult on a bitterly cold Suffolk night, the entertainment supplied by Fleece Jazz at the welcoming Stoke by Nayland Hotel Resort provided just the tonic (gin optional) to warm the audience members. From the off, Simon Thorpe’s Jivin’ Miss Daisy band set the swinging tone of the Fleece show with a bold and brassy performance…

A band primarily playing bebop, without a drummer, is not to everybody’s taste. It is to mine. You get the combined sound and great clarity from each instrument. This band’s musicianship and joy in playing together  were exceptional. Power of Three indeed. Tommaso Starace is a great presenter: lovely stories,  good (and very bad) jokes, and most important, he was clear about song titles and composers. As to the latter, Steve did have a query or two about attribution. But the thing is his playing. His mastery of the instrument is amazing, with a big dynamic range, ideas piling on…