Mikec
Member
- Messages
- 196
Played at Marlow on Tuesday. He is generally known to play with a Hip-Hop band as backing, but here he played standards with the Frank Toms Trio as backing (Frank on piano, Matt Ridley on bass, and Elliot Toms on drums) who were excellent as usual. He is yet another genius of the saxophone. His sound is quite "vintage", and his alto looks like a vintage model. His playing is very modern in most respects he played very much in the Coltrane style with lots of chords, other times he palyed long, lyrical lines. I think his own style is to play 4-to 8- bar phrases and then fully develop each one in a long solo. He is unusual in one respect; he "works" every note. There's at the very least a bend one way or the other, and he uses vibrato a lot, sometimes subtly, sometimes quite aggressively, along with trills, growls and sort of roars.
He bounced on to the stage and then played an interesting selection of standards with great energy and passion (Someone to Watch Over Me, Tune Up, Star Eyes, Gentle Rain, Sophisticated Lady amongst others). His personality is big, warm and commanding. To start with he played a 12-bar in F minor, and clearly no-one's told him that the blues is a dead format! The highlight for me was a long solo in "Star Eyes" that brought the image to my mind of very fine goldwork; it was so beautifully crafted. (It's very difficult to describe music, isn't it? I can't think of any other way to put it.). As a big change for Marlow, he did a rap, based on suggested words from the audience. It took just a few minutes, and was very well received. While it's perhaps not strictly jazz (thought that's not a problem for me) it demonstrated that improvisation is about association of ideas, inventiveness, intelligence and quick-wittedness, whatever the instrument you're using. A fabulous evening, one of the best at Marlow that I've attended, and I can't wait to see him again. I'd love to see him with Peter King or Simon Spillett.
He bounced on to the stage and then played an interesting selection of standards with great energy and passion (Someone to Watch Over Me, Tune Up, Star Eyes, Gentle Rain, Sophisticated Lady amongst others). His personality is big, warm and commanding. To start with he played a 12-bar in F minor, and clearly no-one's told him that the blues is a dead format! The highlight for me was a long solo in "Star Eyes" that brought the image to my mind of very fine goldwork; it was so beautifully crafted. (It's very difficult to describe music, isn't it? I can't think of any other way to put it.). As a big change for Marlow, he did a rap, based on suggested words from the audience. It took just a few minutes, and was very well received. While it's perhaps not strictly jazz (thought that's not a problem for me) it demonstrated that improvisation is about association of ideas, inventiveness, intelligence and quick-wittedness, whatever the instrument you're using. A fabulous evening, one of the best at Marlow that I've attended, and I can't wait to see him again. I'd love to see him with Peter King or Simon Spillett.