The pandemic was extremely hard on artists of all kinds: theatre, on and off the stage, for example. It was very difficult for musicians, but many of them found good ways to use the time. One of the best of these was the genesis and work that produced Five-Way Split. Quentin Collins (trumpet and flugel), Vasilis Xenopoulos (tenor sax), Rob Barron (piano), Máyás Hofecker (double bass) and Matt Home (drums) created the band. They wrote music for it, recorded it, and over time produced an excellent CD of their own tunes, and some standards.
They played for us last Wednesday. What a delight not to see music stands! In fact, Rob wanted the piano front off, and asked for the music stand that sits on the open piano. He looked at it for a minute, and realized that they knew the music, so the stand was put away. What was magical was the combination of great unity and precision of the five coupled with the freedom to improvise in such a lyrical way.
The standard of writing was very high throughout the gig. The first number, Vasilis’s tribute to Wayne Shorter, “Out of Waynes Bag”, brought us into the heart of the band’s music.
Arranging is a subtle art, and the band is very good at it. Solos flowed out of the heads beautifully. Quentin’s solo with the Harmon mute in “All The Way” was a highlight for me, but every solo shone. I like to listen to the accompaniments to solos, and these were very good, lots of careful listening. But the solos grabbed my attention pretty well totally.
Thanks to Steve Jordan for producing the setlist below. He agreed, a great gig, thank you , guys,
The next gig is on Wednesday, 13 September. Loz Speyer’s “Time Zone” will have us travel with Cuban music around the world. It will be grand, don’t miss it.
Take care,
Dave
FIVE-WAY SPLIT
SETLIST, FLEECE JAZZ 23/08/23
- Out of Wayne’s Bag (Xenopoulos)
- Lingua Franca (Barron)
- Mr Birthday Waltz (Collins)
- Asymphonatic (Collins)
- Evidently (Barron)
* * * * * * *
- All The Way (Jimmy Van Heusen/Sam Cahn) – a song made famous by Frank Sinatra in 1957 which was introduced in the film The Joker Is Wild. This arrangement was by Rob Barron.
- Sunday in New York (Peter Nero and Carroll Coates ) – a song written for the 1963 movie of the same name. It was sung by Mel Tormé in the film which starred Jane Fonda.
- San Sebastian (Xenopoulos) – named after the city in the Basque region of Spain
- Theme For Ernie (Fred Lacey) – covered by John Coltrane amongst others
- Encounter (Mike LeDonne) – based on the chord changes of Love for Sale
- ENCORE: Bittersweet (Sam Jones)