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Concert
Review by Nick Morgan |
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GUY BARKER JAZZ ORCHESTRA
Ronnie Scott’s, London, December
3rd 2007 |
| I
can’t really understand what’s going
on. I’ve spent the past three days eating
nothing but foie gras (or so it feels) and drinking
the most astonishing wines (thanks Serge) but now
I’m back in London eating pizza. And I have
to say that even by pizza standards it isn’t
very good. It’s not even my idea. |
 |
| The
Cool Dudes have insisted we accompany them, blue
suede shoes and all, to Ronnie Scott’s for
some Jazz (and as you know Serge, Jazz isn’t
one of my strongest points) and first to Spiga
(owned, it turns out, by ex-Mean Fiddler Vince Power’s
ubiquitous VPMG) for dinner. And given that this
is big business best that I say no more about the
pizza, or the service, or the décor, or the
wine, or the bill. ‘Nuff not said. |
| It’s
a special night at Ronnie’s – a launch
event for Guy
Barker’s new CD The Amadeus Project.
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Barker
is one of Britain’s leading trumpeters, who
for the past few years, partly as a result of an
invitation to play at San Diego’s Mainly
Mozart Festival, partly due to the prompting
of a friend, and thanks to a commission from the
BBC, has been experimenting with all things Wolfgang.
So the collection comprises on one disc the Amadeus
Suite – a series of tunes inspired by characters
from Mozart – such as ‘How sweet the
breeze’ based on Rosina, the betrayed wife
of Count Almaviva in the Marriage of Figaro, and
‘Weeping and wailing’, the manipulative
philosopher Don Alfonso from Cosi Fan Tutte. |
| However
the main focus of the CD, and of this evening, is
dZf, the story of the Magic Flute retold in a narrative
written by crime novelist (and long time friend
of Barker) Robert
Ryan. It’s Mozart meets Mickey Spillane,
a Damon
Runyon pastiche of hardboiled Harlem hokey,
which is narrated on the disc and tonight, by Brooklyn-born
actor Michael Brandon, whom you may remember from
his lead role in the 1980s British TV series Dempsey
and Makepeace, or perhaps for North Americans
that he is the voice of Thomas
the Tank Engine. And the story is told against
the background of Barker’s score – itself
a pastiche of US film and TV crime-noir thrillers.
Think the original 1950s and 1960s TV themes of
Dragnet combined with the Untouchables and you won’t
be too far away from the genre – although
you may just want to add a touch of the Bonzos’
‘I am the big shot’ for good measure.
And did I mention that it’s being played for
us by the wonderful fifteen-piece Guy Barker Jazz
Orchestra who are somehow squeezed onto the tiny
stage of Ronnie Scott’s? |
| I’m
a tad too adjacent to Rotherham-born Mark
Frost’s (very loud) bass trombone for
comfort – this is a man in whose hands a bottle
of lager looks like a mere child’s plaything
and I note he’s also, when not doing anything
better, a member of the world-famous Grimethorpe
Colliery Band. |
| In
a row in front of Frosty and the other trombonists
– including Burnley-boy Barnaby
Dickinson who plays a blistering solo later
in the evening, are the saxophonists, with featured
soloist Rosario
Giuliani (perhaps he should stand for the Presidency
of the United States?), Per ‘Texas’
Johansson (whose contra bass clarinet solo on ‘Queen
Righteous’ was outstanding), Graeme Blevins
on tenor and clarinet, and with his head uncomfortably
close to the bumper of Frost’s slide is Phil
Todd, who on flute and piccolo provides the Papageno
theme for the piece, which (and I’ve said
this before, Serge) sounds uncannily like ‘Love
be my lady tonight’, but who also plays baritone,
and an astonishing tubax. Cool! |
 |
And
in addition to Barker’s carefully chosen,
beautifully played and mostly (unless I’m
mistaken) minor key solos there’s also a three-man
horn section including Nathan
Bray and Byron
Wallen. And just to make up the numbers there’s
Jim
Watson on keyboards, Phil
Donkin on bass, and on drums Ralph
Salmins.
It’s a prodigious group of musicians, and
the sheer skill, vibrancy and delight of their playing,
aided by Barker’s fantastically witty and
complex arrangements, is thoroughly engrossing.
It’s enough to make me forget that Runyon
pastiches are really a bit passé –
and that tough guy voice-overs are, or were, left
behind with ‘The big shot’. But to be
in a tiny space with this group of musicians is
just so exhilarating that it almost makes the pizza
seem worthwhile. Thanks, Cool Dudes.
- Nick
Morgan |
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the index of all reviews:
Nick's Concert Reviews
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