The Vortex Jazz Club, 11 Gillett Square, London N16 8JH | Bookings 020 7254 4097 | Enquiries 020 7993 3643 | Email Info at Vortex

May 2008
gig reviews

Sleepthief
Lotte Anker
Oriole
Ian Shaw
Pippo Matino
Puma
Eddie Parker's Twittering Machine
Arun Ghosh
Evelyn Petrova and Alexander Balanescu
Julian Siegel Quartet

Gig reviews archive

 2008 gig reviews
 2007 gig reviews
 2006 gig reviews

 


 

May 2008 gig reviews by Chris Parker

Pippo Matino

Wednesday 14 May

'Jazz-rock-funk which doesn't forget the melodic lesson of Mediterranean music' is the description given on his website of bassist Pippo Matino's area of operation, and it sums up his approach pretty well.

As adept at hammering out percussive bass with his thumb as producing singing lines ö la the late lamented Jaco Pastorius, Matino is something of a virtuoso, but he led his band unfussily through a lively and accessible mix of punchy rock, funk grooves and the odd jazz classic (Duke Ellington's 'Caravan' received a lengthy and imaginative interpretation on this occasion), clearly delighting a vociferous (mainly Italian) audience, gathered to celebrate another gig in the Italian Jazz Festival 2008, held across five London venues this month.

Not that the spotlight was shone exclusively on Matino himself: the rhythmic rapport between Zawinulesque keyboard player Peter De Girolamo and drummer Claudio Romano was impressive throughout, the former producing a wonderful variety of textures from his instrument and occasionally rapping out percussive tattoos in unison with Romano to provide sudden contrasts to the spaciness of his playing.

Tenor/soprano player Giulio Martino, too, was appropriately throaty on the former horn, snakily agile on the latter Æ overall, this was a thoroughly enjoyable performance from a tight but pleasingly informal band.

 

 

Join the Vortex
email list

To receive monthly gig details, news and ticket offers.



RSS feeds

For news, gig and CD reviews and information about the club.

Click on the link below to get the subscribe address
Vortex news

For more informaton about RSS see the
RSS help pages