People seem to be afraid of original music. All but two of the tunes we heard on this lovely gig were written by Philip Clouts, our leader on piano. Philip writes beautiful, varied and accessible music that any jazz lover would enjoy.
My favourite tune was Nyasa Lullaby. It was a beautiful slow lullaby based on a single tone row. The variations on the row seemed without end. I was sorry when the tune ended.
But Philip is a very talented composer. I don’t know whether he has ever visited Cannery Row (we had our honeymoon there and thereabout). That was 60 years ago, but I think he caught it as we saw it back then. So he took us all around Africa, South America and the U.S. west coast. It was a joyous ride.
The band is very happy with standards: both the Rogers and Hart and the Horace Silver were delightful.
I hope we have the band back. They deserve a much bigger audience. The comments afterwards were from very happy people. Steve Jordan’s setlist is below.
Next gig, 24 May, will celebrate the great British pianist and composer, George Shearing. Nick Tomalin’s quintet will do them honour.
Take care,
Dave
PHILIP CLOUTS QUARTET
SETLIST, FLEECE JAZZ 10/5/23
All compositions by Philip Clouts except (3) and (9)
- Tilt – with influences from Latin America
- On West Hill – inspired by John Steinbeck’s Cannery Row about a small seaside community in the U.S.A. West Hill is the area where Philip Clouts lives in Lyme Regis on the Dorset coast.
- Have You Met Miss Jones? (Rodgers & Hart) featured two wonderful solos by Tim Fairhall on double bass
- Umoya – titled from the Zulu word for life-force.
- Nyasa Lullaby – inspired by musicians from Tanzania using notes from just one scale
- Marula – named after the fruit-bearingl tree with a dome-shaped canopy indigenous to the savanna woodlands of East Africa and Madagascar.
* * * * * * *
- Going to Congo Square
- Solitude – written during lockdown
- Song For My Father (Horace Silver)
- Scintillate
- As Evening Falls
- Rubik’s Rubric – inspired by West African music
- ENCORE: Beeram Blues