Geoff Winston's selection of 2010 live music

The exceptional, the provocative and the affirmative have been found in abundance at many extraordinary concerts in the past year. To pick out just a few of them is not to exclude the rest, but to give a flavour of the range and the world-class standards that we are fortunate to be able to experience on our doorstep - mostly in the confines of north-east London at trail-blazing venues Vortex and Cafe Oto, but also in the centre of town at concert halls - Barbican (drawing above in negative of Charles Lloyd Quartet- credit Geoffrey Winston), RFH, Kings Place and the Wigmore Hall.

So with a few guide-words, let's hear it for:


Raw Creativity: Bad Plus with Django Bates at Kings Place (November); an unparalleled whirlwind of ingenuity, inspiration and interplay, defying categorisation

Power and Glory: Hairy Bones at Vortex (March); the sensitivity of Peter Brötzmann's long-standing quartet with trumpeter Kondo, Nilssen-Love and Pupillo came through on both nights, even though their meal-ticket is power-play

Ensemble Extraordinaire: Vandermark 5 at Vortex (September); breathtaking dynamics, awareness and intelligence from Vandermark, Rempis and co; a few days later at Cafe Oto, Ken joined Brötzmann's Full Blast Trio for two sessions which never stood still for a moment

Delight: Martial Solal at the Wigmore Hall (November); this quasi-sacred space proved to be the perfect setting for pianist Solal's exceptional virtuosity, creativity and gentle musical wit

Joy: Han Bennink at Pizza Express, with Coxon and Thomas (May); master drummer Bennink sparkled, switching gleefully from utter precision to contained mayhem; at Vortex (October) the smiles from trombonist Ray Anderson said it all, with Bennink mucking in, away from the limelight this time

Another Plane: David Toop at the Whitechapel Gallery (September); a remarkable two-hours of tremulous sound explorations from Toop, Butcher, Durrant and Kolkowski

Class (I): Vijay Iver Trio (link is to Patrick Hadfield's review) at Vortex (August); with Crump and Gilmore, Iyer's sets had quality written all over them; solo, also at Vortex (December), Iyer's intensity and range were absorbing

Class (II): Charles Lloyd Quartet (link to Alison Hoblyn's review) at the Barbican (November): Lloyd's flow was perfectly complemented by the accomplished trio of Moran, Rogers and Harland

Co-operation: Leo Wadada Smith 's two nights at Cafe Oto (July) showed how the sensitivity of a key musician can bring out the best in his collaborators

Invention: Mats Gustafsson at Cafe Oto (April) created evocative soundcapes with Thomas and Wachsmann, and gave an outing to his vintage slide sax; at Vortex (November) he was equally inventive in The Thing's sets, which showed a welcome disrespect for musical boundaries

The Extreme: Lou Reed's Metal Music Machine Trio at The Junction, Cambridge, heard again at the RFH (April) were uncompromising and challenging - the bunker and the concert hall presented different ribcage-vibrating options and Reed, Calhoun and Kreiger battered the walls at the edge of the musical universe

Illuminating Interview: Seb's interview with Matthias Winckelmann (link to Neal Richardson's review)at King's Place (April); hearing Matthias tell his story helped give form to a label that one almost takes for granted. This could be the forerunner of a series - maybe other labels, producers, musicians ...

Great music, too, from, among others, John Tchicai, Mary Halvorson, Chris Abrahams, Andrea Belfi, The Necks, Alexander von Schlippenbach, Evan Parker, Paul Lovens, Tony Marsh, Steve Noble, John Edwards, Joe McPhee, Monty Alexander, Georgia Manci0, Norma Winstone, Brad Mehldau, Phronesis, Toshimara Nakimura, Rhodri Davies, Tyft, Buffalo Collision, Max de Wardener, Bad Plus on their own ... and averaging 8 or 10 quid to see world class music in its best format - the live performance - often in a tiny venue - this represents incredible value.

Thank you musicians, thank you promoters and venues. And best wishes for 2011.

London Jazz Festival Reviews (13) - Charles Lloyd plus Norma Winstone

Norma Winstone/Klaus Gesing/ Glauco Venier plus Charles Lloyd Quartet
(Barbican Hall, part of London Jazz Festival, 17th November. Review by Alison Hoblyn, photo credit: Roger Thomas)
　
In the comfort of the Barbican Hall’s plush purple seats and mellow wood, a serious audience was treated to a double bill of longstanding ECM label artists. Norma Winstone' s trio was up first, with Glauco Venier on piano and Klaus Gesing on sax and bass clarinet. The ensemble had walked on to the stage without fanfare and very humbly just got on with the job of making great music.

Winstone sang many of the numbers from the new ECM album Stories Yet to Tell (reviewed HERE) It was a pleasure to sense the strong interacting and the intense listening going on between all three musicians.

In Among the Clouds her voice blended with tympanic piano and ceded to a bass clarinet solo. The perfectly controlled diminuendo at the end faded seamlessly into the introductory instrumental for Just Sometimes; as she sang this, the audience attention fell on her like a spotlight. She certainly drew me into her storytelling. For quite a while, I realised, it had completely escaped my mind that I was sitting amongst hundreds.

I came mainly to hear songs from this favourite album. There was some extemporising, and every note and every word was discernible. But if I knew what to expect most of the time I was surprised by her rendition of Harry Nilsson’s Everybody’s Talking at Me, so different from the bouncy Midnight Cowboy theme. As she sang the word ‘ocean’ in one of the phrases she rolled from a pitch-perfect note to exquisite dissonance and back to pitch again in a breathtaking display of technique and intuitive emotion. The piano was jaunty and trilling and Norma let rip; her voice echoed the upper registers of the clarinet and her expressive jazz hands fluttered from the ends of her black sleeves.

By the time she got to the last number, Goddess, the audience was less serious and more involved; and generous with its applause. As she sang the words ‘shrouded in moonlight’ the silvered blue lighting picked out her earnestly leaning form. Just as I could have taken more, she made an efficient check of the Timex, a generous credit to her fellow players and they were off with no fuss.

In complete contrast, there was no downplaying when the Charles Lloyd Quartet (above) colonised the stage. He was a real ‘geezer’; styled as everyone’s vision of a jazz musician in free-form jacket with scarf, beret and shades (below!). The light was now hot pink and patterned. Lloyd played a lyrical and heartfelt solo on his beast of a saxophone and then stood apart to paternally watch his ‘boys’ gently deconstruct the piece. There was a sense of them really enjoying the performance and it spread to the audience. Some riveting double bass solos - Reuben Rogers , piano parts with great slabs of chords from Jason Moran and highly inventive drumming from Eric Harland engaged us. Even though everything was delivered in an unhurried way there was no lack of physical energy; Moran nearly fell off his piano stool and Lloyd was prone to a little light calisthenics in the background as the boys played on.



If you missed these aerobics, you can hear these great performances on Radio 3 Jazz on 3 on the 22nd November at 11.15pm.