Just now back from seeing Andrea's second set at what has unfortunately become a very noisy pub, to the point where Andrea actually admonished the family get-togetherers at the back of the pub, asking if those of us at the front could hear the music.
Andrea's band plays with a relaxed conviction in the mid-60s out-of-Lee Morgan-into-'80s-postbop fusion for which she is known. Having decided early on on a stage name she pronounces it Vi Carey - one suppresses the temptation to suggest Vicarious as a band name - her own playing comes out of McCoy Tyner as much as anybody, and in Dorian Lockett she has a bass and bass guitar player who is (1) ideal for her music, (2) has some pedigree in that his bro is Mornington Lockett, ginger of hair and beard, nothing to do with Camden Town, and by journalists' consensus our prime Michael Brecker exponent, and (3) her husband. Nic France some will remember as having been Loose Tubes's first drummer before Steve Arguelles took over in around '87 - time has greyed and thinned the barnet somewhat, a surprise for those who recall the fashionable floppy sub-Mary Quant fringe cut then sported by young men, but he still delivers cross-rhythms with aplomb, avoiding the over-elaborate gleaming kit with multiple cymbals and inward-leaning drums for a convention set, along with the repeat backbeat, which, in my view, did more to bring funk fusion into disrepute than the slitheriest Moog line with added reverb. But, in furthering my cause of bringing possibly overlooked new or newish players to the bored's attention, I mention Duncan Eagles, Mornington's replacement, as an impressive, burnished-toned tenor saxophonist, having decided that he is fulfilling my hopes as to how he would turn out given another decade, bringing us to today. Here is an example of his playing with another group, including the fine Dave Hamblett on drums, presumably recorded last year. See what you think - there's more of him on offer there:
The forthright British-domiciled Russian altoist Zhenya Strigalev, who plays with head bent back, comes to The Vortex this coming Wednesday. He's a tough nut, no doubt about that - well, you would need to be - I like him, and his playing, but I haven't seen Alan Wilkinson for a long time now. He emails me the details of his montly gig at Ryans in Stoke Newington, which is just too far to travel, but he's doing Cafe Oto the following night with a bunch of alternating free duos and trios, including one with Ron Caines, now resident in Brighton, who once played with East of Eden, which some may remember as an early Bristol-based Progrock band taken to wearing ancient Egyptian attire, from the late 1960s (Pharaoh nuff!) and a protégé of the youthful Keith Tippett.
Andrea's band plays with a relaxed conviction in the mid-60s out-of-Lee Morgan-into-'80s-postbop fusion for which she is known. Having decided early on on a stage name she pronounces it Vi Carey - one suppresses the temptation to suggest Vicarious as a band name - her own playing comes out of McCoy Tyner as much as anybody, and in Dorian Lockett she has a bass and bass guitar player who is (1) ideal for her music, (2) has some pedigree in that his bro is Mornington Lockett, ginger of hair and beard, nothing to do with Camden Town, and by journalists' consensus our prime Michael Brecker exponent, and (3) her husband. Nic France some will remember as having been Loose Tubes's first drummer before Steve Arguelles took over in around '87 - time has greyed and thinned the barnet somewhat, a surprise for those who recall the fashionable floppy sub-Mary Quant fringe cut then sported by young men, but he still delivers cross-rhythms with aplomb, avoiding the over-elaborate gleaming kit with multiple cymbals and inward-leaning drums for a convention set, along with the repeat backbeat, which, in my view, did more to bring funk fusion into disrepute than the slitheriest Moog line with added reverb. But, in furthering my cause of bringing possibly overlooked new or newish players to the bored's attention, I mention Duncan Eagles, Mornington's replacement, as an impressive, burnished-toned tenor saxophonist, having decided that he is fulfilling my hopes as to how he would turn out given another decade, bringing us to today. Here is an example of his playing with another group, including the fine Dave Hamblett on drums, presumably recorded last year. See what you think - there's more of him on offer there:
The forthright British-domiciled Russian altoist Zhenya Strigalev, who plays with head bent back, comes to The Vortex this coming Wednesday. He's a tough nut, no doubt about that - well, you would need to be - I like him, and his playing, but I haven't seen Alan Wilkinson for a long time now. He emails me the details of his montly gig at Ryans in Stoke Newington, which is just too far to travel, but he's doing Cafe Oto the following night with a bunch of alternating free duos and trios, including one with Ron Caines, now resident in Brighton, who once played with East of Eden, which some may remember as an early Bristol-based Progrock band taken to wearing ancient Egyptian attire, from the late 1960s (Pharaoh nuff!) and a protégé of the youthful Keith Tippett.