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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

Phil Robson – Six Strings and a Beat

Friday 23 March

Phil Robson confessed to being 'as nervous as I've ever been' before his gig premiering Six Strings and a Beat, his music for string quartet (cellist Kate Shortt, viola player Naomi Fairhurst, violinists Jenny May-Logan and Emma Smith), bass (Peter Herbert) and drums (Gene Calderazzo).

There were a number of teething problems, true, but overall it was something of a triumph for Robson, who wholly engrossed a packed club not only with his stunning soloing (especially in conjunction with just Herbert and Calderazzo) but also with the variety, ambition and sheer virtuosity of his music.

Touching bases as apparently widely spaced as the diaphonous but propulsive sound of Malian singer Oumou Sangare, the spacy spikiness of, say, Terje Rypdal or Jimi Sumen, and the 'squeezed toothpaste from a tube' sound of Bill Frisell – not to mention the odd blues sequence and solo spots for Herbert and the strings – he demonstrated not just a keen compositional brain but also a refreshingly open-eared approach to contemporary music.

 

 

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