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

November 2006
gig reviews

Oren Marshall - Charming Transport Band
John Law Trio
Andy Sheppard - 200 Saxophones - the opening of Gillett Square
Convergence Quartet
Robert Mitchell and Omar Puente
Ian Shaw
Mike Westbrook Village Band Project
Christine Tobin
Billy Jenkins
Huw Warren and Peter Herbert, Led Bib
Anker, Craig, Cleaver & Curios
Nikki Yeoh
Dog Soup
Sex Mob
Taeko Kunishima

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November 2006 gig reviews by Chris Parker

Nikki Yeoh – solo Gemini

Wednesday 15

Nikki Yeoh performed her solo-piano gig in the round ('to give the place a cosy vibe, like my living room', as she herself commented), and if she hoped it would relax her, enable her to free-associate, unself-consciously follow improvisational paths of her own devising, she was vindicated by the consequent freshness and spontaneity of her playing.

She began with a slow, spacy piece that elicited a breathless hush from the room, but soon injected pace and punch into her delivery, exploring bebop figures and a variety of other lively rhythms, culminating in one of her favourite selections, prefaced by an explanatory story of a dancing bear wooing an initially reluctant mate.

The tune's appropriately 'heavy' dancing feel, slowly superseded by graceful elegance and climaxing in straightforward joyousness, epitomised Yeoh's approach: she exudes an infectious enthusiasm for the uplifting qualities of her own playing, particularly adept as she is at running rhythms against each other, imbuing her performances with a delightful ambiguity that always seems to resolve itself in unalloyed celebration.

Given the accessibility of her compositions, and the wholly unpretentious skill with which she explores them, plus her ease and unaffected informality with an audience, Yeoh should have no difficulty in establishing herself as a bright star in the solo-piano firmament.

 

 

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