British modern Jazz has a tough time getting by, surviving.
Really it’s one big collective. Someone gets a booking and it’s a ring round to
find a group of musicians who are free. ‘Groups’, just can’t make it.
So, when Simon Spillett (coolish dude in a suit with a sax)
formed ‘Standard Miles’, to play standards in the style of Miles Davis, that
was quite something. Especially as this is the style of the 1960’s, the Herbie
Hancock period.
You’ll get the idea that this wasn’t a tribute band or a band
of looky-likey’s. They weren’t playing the Miles Davies Greatest Hits. It was just
five great musicians playing a bunch of standards they know, in a style they
love. A hand in an old glove.
So, Henry Lowther used a mute a heck of a lot and that short
staccato stabbing sound, but the mask often slipped a little – did Davies ever
play the flugel? He was in good form. There was John Critchinson delicate on piano
and Dave Green on Bass. We had a rare treat of a trio – Piano, Drums and Bass on
their own.
Trevor Tomkins was really something tonight. When the French
government banned Absinthe, the distillers produced a new aniseed flavoured
drink that carried a hint of what it replaced but was something new. It was called
‘Pastis’, because it was a pastiche of what went before. TT really took his
drums to 1963 tonight and gave everything a certain flavour, a memory of
something very familiar but irreplaceable, without pretending to copy what can’t
be copied.
There was a taste of it all - urban sax, short and stabby sax
and trumpet, fast and furious and very slow and thoughtful.
Even though these five play together a lot, know each other
well, there’s nothing like being a group to take it up a gear. A
thoughtful night and lots of cheers and whistles too.
Neil Harris
( a don’t stop till you drop production)
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