Jazz Northampton - NCJazz - promoting contemporary jazz in Northampton and Northants
The Secret of the Jazz Giants
Thursday 16 June 2011 - the Simon Spillett Quartet
Arguably, the 'hottest-property' jazz Quartet currently playing in the UK and beyond paraded the full extent of its awesome skills and artistry for this outstanding gig. As Simon Spillett remarked on introducing the Quartet, at least two members have the pedigree of significant jazz dynasties.
Bassist, Alec Dankworth's parents are Dame Cleo Laine and the late Sir John Dankworth, and his sister is high profile jazz singer, Jacqui Dankworth.
Drummer, Clark Tracey, is son of pianist, Stan Tracey, for so long a seminal, and now a legendary, figure on the British jazz scene.
Pianist, Steve Melling's illustrious career has found him in association with most of the major national and international artistes on the jazz scene.
Tenor saxophonist, Simon Spillett, has risen to national and international recognition at an astronomic pace. Winning the BBC Jazz Award for Rising Star in 2007, his album Sienna Red was nominated as best album in the BBC Jazz Awards in 2008; and in the following year, the same album won the critics' poll for Best Jazz Album of 2008/9 in Jazz Journal International.
The first number, a Jerome Kern standard, Nobody Else but Me, found the Quartet roaring into action with a fast-paced opening from Spillett, so setting the tone for the rest of the gig. Apart from a couple of ballads, the pace was relentless - high-speed, driving jazz, played with consummate skill and originality.
Steve Melling took up the theme with a mellifluous romping solo. He is a picture of concentration at the piano, and the spectacles he occasionally wears give him a distinctly professorial look.
Off the Wagon, a number from the late Tubby Hayes, was slower, but only just. Clearly dear to the heart of Simon Spillett, for whom Tubby Hayes was one of the greatest influences, his solo was lilting and melodic. Steve Melling's virtuoso solo in reply was a masterpiece with subtle variations in tone and rhythm and frequent arpeggios which were to be a feature of his playing during the evening. Rapid-fire exchanges of interplay between Dankworth and Tracey revealed the full extent of the Quartet's power and dynamism.
This and various other numbers, such as the boppish Sonny Rollins composition, Oleo, and the standard, Alone Together, provided the key to the Quartet's success, both individually and collectively. No matter how complex the improvisations, the theme was always clearly identifiable, giving a welcome accessibility to this genre of music which is so frequently denied to audiences in the name of progression and individuality.
Highlights of the programme were many and varied. Probably the greatest was the Gillespie-Pozo, Latin- American composition, Tin Tin Deo. Clark Tracey's original thumping 'tom-tom' like drum solo was a 'hands and elbows' effort, prompting the comment from Simon Spillett that he'd been 'all over the drums like a rash'.
The same number produced a stupendous piano solo from Steve Melling, whose fluent lyricism suggested the influence of the late Oscar Peterson.
There was also an outstanding solo from Alec Dankworth, very much the mainstay of the Quartet for the evening. His innovative, wandering, yet entirely melodic, solo generated one of the largest outbreaks of applause during the evening.
This Quartet is very much the sum of its parts. Each of the artistes oozed confidence; and confidence breeds assurance and ultimately mastery. This Quartet possessed assurance in spades - and assurance has, surely, always been the secret of the great jazz giants.
NCJAZZ FOR LIVE JAZZ MUSIC IN NORTHANTS