rhythmaning | Jun. 25th, 2011

I saw the Gillespiana Big Band play at my nearly-local basement venue back in April (oh, months ago…), and it was a lot busier than the last time I was there. It was packed. Maybe because a big band has more people to get their mates a long. There were several familiar names amongst the rosta – Freddie Gavitas on trumpet, Dennis Rollins on trombone, Jim Richardson on bass. A young trumpeter, Tommy Walsh, was superb, hitting all the high notes, and the lead tenor of Elizabeth Greenwood was great.

This is clearly a pick up band of sorts – I read a review of a February gig at the King’s Head, and most of the musicians were different. But it was really, really fun. Focusing on the afro-cuban bop of Dizzy Gillespie’s big band in the late 40s and 50s, they played all the favourites – Cubana-Be, Cubana-Bop and A Night In Tunisia amongst them – and they closed with a raucous version of Manteca.

Excellent stuff!

Dutch avant garde drummer Han Bennink played a couple of nights at the Vortex. I caught him the night he played a drum duet with Steve Noble – one of my favourite British improvising drummers – and a set with his own trio.

The drum duet was really fun, the two improvisers bouncing ideas off each other. Bennink plays with a lot of playful humour, clowning around on the snare drum, playing his shoes, playing his teeth (really!), the floor and the pillars. Nobel had his usual box of tricks – rattles, whistles and things to hit. Their set was short – ten or fifteen minutes – but really fun.

Han Bennink’s trio then played for forty five minutes or so, a modern take on old repertoire: lots of old standards were in the mix, updated with modern improvisation. It was entertaining but slightly bizarre, as snippets of classics emerged from the randomness of their playing. The trio comprised piano, clarinet and drums – an interesting mix of textures. It was another enjoyable, interesting set; my only quibble was its brevity: the whole evening contained only about an hour of music. So: enjoyable – but not necessarily good value…