The Vortex Jazz Club, 11 Gillett Square, London N16 8JH | Bookings 020 7254 4097 | Enquiries 020 7993 3643 | Email Info at Vortex

June 2006
gig reviews

Troy Miller
Liane Carroll
Led Bib, Pinski Zoo
Matthew Bourne
Asaf Sirkis - Inner Noise
Barb Jungr
World Cup Jazz Ball

Gig reviews archive

 2008 gig reviews
 2007 gig reviews
 2006 gig reviews

 


 

June 2006 gig reviews by Chris Parker

Led Bib, Pinski Zoo, Matthew Bourne

Dalston Summer Stew

Monday 12 – Wednesday 14

Pinski Zoo are seen by many (including US drummer's Mark Holub's Led Bib) as the originators of what is now known as 'power fusion', a seething mix of hammered bass, crashing drums, shifting keyboard textures and keening/roaring saxophone that has roots in Ornette Coleman's harmolodics and James Brown's more straightforward funk, but which is more jazz-based than either.

Intriguing, then, to hear them (after a characteristically wide-ranging, witty and oddly moving forty-minute solo-piano-plus-tapes set from the extraordinary Matthew Bourne) after Holub's band in the mini-festival (Monday 12), programmed by Led Bib and called the Dalston Summer Stew.

All the old power and roiling energy were in evidence in Pinski Zoo's set, leader Jan Kopinski waiting until the band reached near boiling-point before tearing into his anthemic saxophone themes, keyboardist Steve Iliffe providing the textures and moods, bassists Karl Bingham and Stefan Kopinski complementing each other perfectly and drummer Steve Harris crashing out the industrial-strength beat.

At full throttle, there's no sound quite as full-blooded or viscerally powerful as Pinski Zoo's – unless it's Led Bib's; the latter band played a short introductory set that was almost painfully intense, subjecting everything from Erik Satie to simple musical hooks to their full-on, no-holds-barred approach, their two-saxophone front line powered by Holub's tumbling, pounding drums. The air temperature inside the Vortex was 30 degrees; the music was even hotter.

A word more about Matthew Bourne: it is extremely difficult, in this time when everything musical has apparently been done before, mixed with everything else in all conceivable combinations via iPods and downloading etc., to be original, to come up with something genuinely innovatory.

Bourne, however, has achieved this with his unique approach to performance: pre-recorded tapes of everything from snatches of spoken word and schmaltz to fragments of Judy Garland, spirituals etc. are triggered during his set and immediately commented on/undercut/embellished by his piano playing as he deems appropriate from moment to moment.

A forty-minute set thus becomes a species of musical snapshot of his state of mind during the performance, and consequently the music he plays (and he's as good an improviser in the conventional sense as you're likely to hear) is imbued with considerable emotional weight by its context; for instance, his ending the performance with Conrad's Kurtz, from Heart of Darkness, whispering his celebrated 'The horror! The horror!' lent gravitas to his entire set, especially since it was preceded by 'Sometimes I feel like a motherless child''.

Dalston Summer Stew was organised and presented by Peter Whittingham Award winners Mark Holub and Led Bib. The project was supported through the Peter Whttingham Award for Jazz which is administered by the Musicians Benevolent Fund.

 

 

Join the Vortex
email list

To receive monthly gig details, news and ticket offers.



RSS feeds

For news, gig and CD reviews and information about the club.

Click on the link below to get the subscribe address
Vortex news

For more informaton about RSS see the
RSS help pages