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March 2007
gig reviews

Martin Speake's Change of Heart
Forty Thieves Orkestar
Adam Waldmann Group
Michael Garrick Quintet
Gee, Gallo, Minetto
Sylvie Courvoisier and Mark Feldmann
Cameron Pierre
Jamie Woon
Cameron Pierre
Phil Robson à Six Strings and a Beat
Tim Berne à Big Satan
Robert Mitchell

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March 2007 gig reviews by Chris Parker

Martin Speake's Change of Heart

Thursday 1 March

'Lyrical – strongly communicative – [characterised by attention to] nuance, textural delicacy – rich and assured' ; all these descriptions fitted the music performed by Martin Speake's Change of Heart perfectly.

It's something of mystery, however, that one of the country's most accomplished and versatile alto players, blessed as he is with an agile and subtle musical brain, should not be able to fill the club; about twenty people witnessed this wholly absorbing gig, in which Speake's pure-toned, affecting alto blended perfectly with Nikki Iles's lyrical, mellifluous yet delicately powerful piano playing (another triumph for the club's Steinway), buoyed up by the restless, probing drumming of Jeff Williams and the dexterous, sonorous bass playing of Duncan Hopkins.

Taking their material largely from the ECM album referred to in the band's name, the quartet demonstrated a mutual responsiveness that suggested (misleadingly) lengthy collaboration, and their exploration of a cleverly rearranged classic, 'Stella by Starlight', came close to being the highlight of the evening, even surrounded as it was by Speake's own plangent compositions.

 

 

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