Courtney Pine Quintet / Loose Tubes
At Monday’s concerts we saw both sides of the ‘new’ jazz coin. Loose Tubes proffered their well-loved, all-embracing and near seamless jigsaw vision of twentieth century music, jazz and otherwise. The Shaw was probably not the most sympathetic of venues for this zany cocktail of burlesque and virtuosity, but their New Orleans style walkabout broke the ice that can separate spectator and performer in such formal auditoria, and in any case, the charts lost none of their reformist zeal. Swing rubbed shoulders with funk, reggae and incidental music, and here was proof that these forms, like the 21 disparate musicians on the stand, can work together, even if sometimes they have to be linked by a rather roughly contrived harness.
The flip side of this peculiarly British jazz renaissance was represented by Courtney Pine’s very competent all-acoustic quintet. Here, stylistic cohabitations were less in evidence, and being so, left the band seeming less original than they might. Late fifties / early sixties hard bop was the dominant strain of influence, even down to the Blue Note costumes, and in this respect, the band got their marketing right. They’ve emerged at a time when ‘modern’ (read 1960) jazz chic is the acceptable face of fashion and Absolute Beginners’ hype would have us believe that 1958 was a vintage year, but to their credit, they don’t stop there. Though polished hard bop might be the starting point, they go on to touch other bases. Pine is an unashamed and serious disciple of all of Trane’s phases, including the later ones, his pianist is much captivated by McCoy Tyner and vocalist Cleveland Watkiss scats his way through the history of jazz vocalese from Hendricks to McFerrin. The band’s repertoire is more than boppish too; one ethnic number had them digging for their African roots.
1986 could be the year when the jazz revival market goes bust. If so, we can only hope both sides of this coin stay in circulation. – Mark Gilbert
Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers
Friday night proved to be a mixed bag of performances in the company of the Messengers sporting a four horn front line. The founder of the Last Poets, Jalal, opened up with a jazz rap which gave way to an up tempo blues featuring Terence Blanchard, who follows in the tradition of Blakey trumpeters with his finely honed technique and confident attack. In addition Donald Harrison on alto pushed his normally quirky style into the background for some impassioned wailing.
I Can’t Get Started served as a solo vehicle for the altoist, but despite the rapturous applause it proved to be a strangely indeterminate performance, with Harrison caught in two minds as to whether he should give way to the tune’s obviously sentimental elements or give it a more contemporary reading. Consequently, he fell between two stools and we got some fluffs as well!
Enter the hoofers IDJ, who have improved immeasurably within the last 12 months. Their routine both collectively and individually is now more professional and slicker and has moved further away from the street culture whence it came. Blakey visibly enjoyed the experience of playing behind them! Jalal returned for a slightly flat rendition of Wayne Shorter’s The Day Lester Left Town to be followed by the band augmented to the tune of six extra horns whipping into a couple of Bobby Watson arrangements, including the classic Moanin’. Watson himself led the additional horns and there was solo space for the excellent flute of Philip Bent, the baritone of Gail Thompson as well as Courtney Pine doing his Coltrane thing.
The balletic gyrations of Birmingham’s Mahogany graced A Night In Tunisia, which duly developed into a dance jam with the reintroduction of IDJ before the Messengers were finally left alone to wind the evening up. – Pete Gamble
Camden Jazz Week, London Shaw Theatre, March 17-22, 1986
