Music / Jazz
Review: Gilad Atzmon, Jazz In The Studio
Looking round at the Old Vic’s new Weston Studio, with the classic grand piano, double bass and drums set up facing the horseshoe of seating, it certainly felt right for jazz. It was something about the rough-hewn brickwork and girders and the fact that it was physically underground, perhaps. But far from shabby, too, and – as it proved – pretty good acoustically (something powerhouse saxophonist Gilad Atzmon was obviously determined to test).
Jim Blomfield, Will Harris, Dave Smith, Gilad Atzmon
As promoter Ian Storrer pointed out in his introduction this was one of those quintessential seat-of-the-pants jazz gigs whereby the four musicians performing as a band had only come together for the first time a couple of hours before. The repertoire was going to be tunes written by or associated with Gilad’s hero John Coltrane, still the presiding genius of jazz saxophone some 50 years after his untimely death, and things kicked off with Equinox. The tenor player ripped into the blues number like an unbridled whirlwind scouring the corners of the room before pulling out abruptly to leave pianist Jim Blomfield to re-establish a spaciousness in the calm after the storm. Drummer Dave Smith shifted adroitly to hard sticks for clipped precision, Will Harris easy-rolled the bassline and the trio asserted their own place in the room with style.
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It didn’t take long for an amazing unity to develop, no doubt helped by ‘standard’ tunes like In A Sentimental Mood, A Moment’s Notice, Old Folks and Beautiful Dreamer but mostly achieved by the confident improvisational skills of the four players. It was soon evident how much Gilad appreciated this, often challenging one player or other in a fiery face-off, urging thunderous duets with Dave Smith, lyrical counterpoint with Will’s bass or some exceptionally clever and playful collaborations with the pianist. One such figured in My One and Only Love, with Gilad’s lyrical soprano sax intricately interlaced with Jim’s melodic and rhythmic inventions. The music was reformed and remoulded in their hands in a stream of consciousness that was almost revelatory.
Early on Gilad had joked that he really only played the same solo, night after night, and nobody noticed. It wasn’t self-deprecation, of course – he’s hardly the man for that – but more a confidently ironic recognition that none of these players were simply going through the motions, but rather building a fine jazz band from scratch. After nearly two hours they were definitely something else, and that was time for the inevitable My Favourite Things, Coltrane’s most celebrated ‘cover’ that he used to explore the art of deconstruction as far as he could go. They started as a piano/sax duet in four time, the tune unusually stilted, before the full quartet took up the more familiar waltz rhythm and the sax took the tune into an Arabic mode for a middle section that somehow became a mash-up with A Night In Tunisia. It was a fine example of how good live jazz refreshes the familiar without losing sight of it, and they followed it up with a no-nonsense hard bop run through of Beautiful Dreamer that sizzled proceedings to their close.
It had been billed as An Evening With Gilad Atzmon, and the man’s ebullient personality and provocative wit had clearly held the event together, but musically it was much more a meeting of equals and all four had made their presence felt both as soloists and collaborators. If at times it seemed the saxophonist was goading them individually it had been a challenge each player had had risen to with aplomb, often triumphantly, with the audience enthusiastically responding to the results. As the first occasion in what will hopefully be an ongoing use of the Studio for jazz gigs it promised great things to come.
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