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May 2007
gig reviews

Zhenya Strigalev Quartet
Willims/Greens/Speake Quartet
Alec Dankworth Spanish Accents
Christine Tobin
Em, radio.string.quartet
Empirical

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May 2007 gig reviews by Chris Parker

Alec Dankworth Spanish Accents

Wednesday 2 May

The ten-day gap between the last review and Alec Dankworth Spanish Accents is attributable to a kidney stone, which prevented my attending the club (a piece of advice: drink two litres of filtered water a day; you really don't want to experience renal colic, believe me).

Basho Records, always sure judges of musical quality, have recorded Dankworth's band – completed by guitarist Phil Robson, violinist Chris Garrick, saxophonist Mark Lockheart and Spanish drummer Marc Miralta – and the resulting album, given the elegantly controlled power of this gig should be a genuine treat.

The band's material all has some Spanish connection, whether direct (through the folk tradition mined by the poet Lorca) or slightly oblique (Iberian-inspired material by Chick Corea, Dizzy Gillespie et al.), and the wistful, earnest plangency of the former was tellingly complemented by the brisk exuberance of the latter.

The band's soloists à Lockheart's contributions carefully sculpted, exquisitely textured; Robson's typically classy, concealing considerable rhythmic and melodic subtlety in breezy explorations of relatively tricky sequences; Garrick's more straightforward but none the less effective; Dankworth's considered and eloquent à balanced each other perfectly, and in Miralta (whose own solo contributions utilised a range of Spanish percussion effects as well as a jazz drum kit) they had a wonderfully inventive, resourceful sparkplug.

A wholly enjoyable gig, warmly presented by Dankworth himself à watch this space for the album review.

 

 

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