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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

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January 2008 gig reviews by Chris Parker

Renato D'Aiello International Quintet

Tuesday 8 January

The 'international', given that the tenorman himself currently lives in the UK, chiefly applies to Renato D'Aiello's rhythm section ê Nicola Muresu (bass) and Max Russino (drums) ê his other collaborators being Brighton's Mark Bassey (trombone) and Londoner Ross Stanley (piano); 'quintet', however, is the operative word, since this band is not just a stellar soloist (though D'Aiello is undoubtedly this) plus backing group.

Bassey, indeed, it is who arranges the Basie- and Mingus-associated material that is interspersed with bop flagwavers and standards to form D'Aiello's sets, and solos are distributed around the band with scrupulous fairness, right down to the fours-trading at pieces' conclusions.

D'Aiello, as anyone who's heard his latest 33Jazz album Sintetico will already know (see CD Reviews), is a post-bop tenor player who has assimilated all the ease and natural swing of mainstream jazz into a fiercely imaginative but consistently musicianly approach honed by exposure to the controlled virtuosic freneticism of bop, so ê like, say, Dexter Gordon ê he is as at home with the intensely melodic ballad (here, Jimmy Rowles's 'Peacocks' and Ellington's 'In a Sentimental Mood') as with breathless, no-prisoners visits to the likes of 'Just in Time', but there is also a sculpted beauty to his playing that renders it highly individual and personal.

Bassey, too, is a thoughtful, intelligent soloist with a warm tone, and his treatment of Mingus's 'My Jelly Roll Soul' has just enough original wrinkles in it to intrigue, without being over-intrusive or inhibiting soloists from stretching out. Stanley makes carefully built contributions throughout the evening, and D'Aiello's frequent associate Muresu is eloquent as ever in his bass solos; briskly propelled by Russino, this is an accomplished, relaxed but smart band sparked by a rather special leader.

 

 

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