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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

Phil Robson Quartet
featuring Dave Liebman

Thursday 24 January

Another full house greeted guitarist Phil Robson, US saxophonist Dave Liebman, bassist Aidan O'Donnell and drummer Jeff Williams as they began their two-night residence at the club, prior to a brief UK tour.

Robson's status as one of the UK's most versatile and accomplished guitarists à he is as adept at fitting in with mainstream outfits, such as the BBC Big Band, as he is at spearheading the pungent jazz-rock fusion of Partisans à is too familiar to Vortex audiences to merit rehearsal here, and the band's music was clearly shaped (and frequently composed) by him, but a brief look at the beginning of Liebman's career also helps explain the quartet's considerable range and scope.

In 1970, he was in a rock group, 10 Wheel Drive, then with Elvin Jones and Miles Davis, before he formed Lookout Farm, with Williams on drums, Richie Beirach on keyboards, Frank Tusa on bass and Badal Roy on percussion. About this last band, he commented: 'I hear New York and I hear the Caribbean. Then, of course, I hear some Middle East stuff Í and the East Indian with Badal. Then there's the African influence Í it's a world music.'

Such an open-eared approach made him the perfect partner for Robson, and many of the musical bases mentioned above were touched during the evening, but if this makes the music sound contrived, it's misleading: the overall impression created by it was one of passionate spontaneity.

Whether they were playing Robson's tricksy but punchy originals (they concluded their first set with his 'Screen Wash'), 'East Indian'-influenced music with Liebman on flute and soprano, or a Liebman arrangement of Jerome Kern's sumptuous, almost operatic ballad 'Dearly Beloved', the accent was firmly on informal interactiveness and imaginative creativity.

Robson's solos were à as ever à skilfully tailored to their various musical contexts, his blistering single-note runs interspersed with swooning chords and rougher-textured passages; Liebman's tenor excursions mixed his characteristic abrasive, vocalised urgency with quieter moments, and his soprano playing was, as always, cogent and characterful.

Full-bloodedly propelled by O'Donnell and Williams, this was gutsy, pleasingly unpredictable but consistently distinguished music.

 

 

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