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January 2008
gig reviews

Jim Mullen's Organ Trio with Stan Sulzmann
Renato D'Aiello International Quintet
Trevor Watkis Quartet
Andy Sheppard and the New Quintet
David Torn's Prezens
Bourne, Davis, Kane
Matana Roberts
Eddie Parker's Mister Vertigo
John Taylor Trio
Kit Downes Trio
Phil Robson Quartet featuring Dave Liebman
Will Butterworth Trio
Richard Fairhurst Trio
Julie Sassoon/Lothar Ohlmeier

Gig reviews archive

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January 2008 gig reviews by Chris Parker

Jim Mullen's Organ Trio
with Stan Sulzmann

Saturday 5 January

This was the Vortex's first instrumental gig of 2008, so it was appropriate that four of the Vortex's most accomplished musicians ê guitarist Jim Mullen, saxophonist Stan Sulzmann, organist Mike Gorman and drummer Matt Skelton ê should perform it to a comfortably full house.

Mullen is celebrated not only for the unfussy eloquence of his soloing but also for the uncontrived coherence his subtle comping gives to his bands' sound, and he was on great form on this occasion, tastefully blistering solos pouring out of him, each perfectly adapted to its context, whether standard (a fluent visit to 'It Never Entered My Mind'), blues (Freddie Hubbard's 'Birdlike', from 1961's Ready for Freddie), or arrangements of jazz classics (Dave Brubeck's 'The Duke') or arias (an affecting version of 'Nessun Dorma').

In Sulzmann, he has the perfect foil, an equally musicianly, inventive soloist, never flashy or glib, but consistently providing thoughtful and absorbing explorations of the carefully chosen material that forms the band's wide-ranging repertoire.

Gorman and Skelton, while less overtly blowsy than many organ/drums combinations, are none the less a wonderfully tight unit, and their fours-trading in particular was exemplary throughout the evening.

For sheer musical excellence with no side to it, this is a band with few peers ê the perfect start to the New Year.

 

 

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