Alex Garnett & Brandon Allen Quartet

Alex Garnett - Tenor Saxophone

Last Thursday (25/09/2014) at the Twickenham Jazz Club was more about the double act of tenor saxophonists Alex Garnett and Brandon Allen than anything else. Yes, they were capably supported, but this was a case of the duo employing the Zulu 'Horns of the Buffalo' offense to break our post-summer malaise to smithereens.

Brandon Allen - Tenor Saxophone

I have admired Garnett since seeing him a year ago at the Whirlwind Festival and his charm, then as well as now is earthy and real. It was not lost on the Twickenham faithful either, TJC webmaster Lister Park commented "there's a certain understated arrogance behind the 'cheeky chappy' persona". The stomping Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis' tune 'Foxy' epitomises Garnett's mixture of punch and drawl. While Brandon Allen whipped us up, chopping hard, knee knocking and straining just on the end of his lyrical leash it was Alex Garnett that egged him on. More than naughty schoolboys they were men with a passion to take risks.



David Ingamells
Drums

Alex Garnett has a new album on the way from his Bunch of Five crew (inc. Tim Armacost, Liam Noble, Mike Janisch, and James Maddren) called Andromeda. I can confirm that this isn't a homage to the Greek beauty who was chained naked to a rock to sate a monster appetite but the galaxy which is 2.5 million light years from earth. A galaxy which is approaching us at 68 miles a second and is equal in force to the bullish Alex Garnett.

Pete Whittaker - Organ

Pete Whittaker gave us more of what we had been waiting for. Squelching our feet in the oozing cool of Illionis Jacquet's 'Embryo', it even resulted in some spontaneous hip action from Messrs Garnett & Allen. Consistently it was Brandon Allen which caught the eye. A rich and expressive solo on Billy May's 'Somewhere in the night' was backed up by an exuberant and hard-hitting whack on the aforementioned 'Embryo'.

Kelvin Christiane
Tenor Saxophone

In the gloom I grabbed a quick black & white sketch of David Ingamells and Kelvin Christiane. The latter played angry and mean, as though he had something to get off his chest. The three tenors on the stage were faster and more furious than their operatic counterparts. Although this may not be much of a compliment, despite Placido Domingo been known as Pitbull on the classical concert circuit.

AL.

Next up at Twickenham Jazz Club 7th October - Kelvin Christiane Big Band, 16th October - Mikhaly Borbely (Hungarian Saxophonist) with the excellent Mike Gorman Trio, 30th October -Sarah Moule.

Nigel Price - Naughty but Nice

Nigel Price -

Nigel Price's reputation preceded him, so I arrived at The Bloomsbury (14/02/2013) last Thursday with a bag full of comic material. I'm not just talking about his comedy posts on Facebook but also his family's resemblance to a Beano cartoon-strip . Over the past year we've been treated to some excellent shenanigans from his son, especially his letters home from school. These would have been funny enough even without them been tampered en route and littered with classic adolescent humour.
 Like son, like father in many cases too, because Nigel cannot resist a prank or two. My favourite was the note Nigel left on a badly parked BMW in a multi-storey car park which read (from memory)
'Well done...
I have posted a picture of this on
WWW.YOUPARKLIKEAC*NT.COM'.

His demeanour in real life doesn't dispel the vision of him as a larrikin either. As I walked in he was perched on his stool with guitar in hand, his feet barely touched the floor. But this is where humorous anecdotes end.
He was the model professional and quite simply brilliant.


Bob Martin

The evening was a curious one, very much a night of two halves. In the first set Bob Martin (alto), who is the epitome of west-coast cool, was almost too hip to function. Very much in the finger-clicking style of Peter King, he remained unphased by the packed audience in front of him. He never raised his eyes and continually checked his watch, and we watched and worried that he is ailing in some way. If that is the case then his revival in the second set was impressive.
It could be argued that the interjection of Kelvin Christiane and his Baritone sax injected a pump of energy and fluidity into his fellow saxophonist.

Bob Martin although distant with the audience showed his appreciation for some of his fellow musicians. His Errol Garner style yips and yelps accompanied the man on his left, Pete Whittaker on keys. As you know I have worked closely with Whittaker's stunt double Bill Mudge, so it was a real pleasure to experience a man that rivals Bill's skill on the organ.

Pete Whittaker

I didn't have a good view for drawing  Pete Whittaker but was able to pay special attention to his style of playing. As the whole quintet came to life with a rendition of 'Old Folks', Whittaker's left hand resembled a desert lizard on hot sand with digits alternating, no two fingers touched the keys at any one time. His right hand resembled a reptile too, definitely a cobra, it hovered for a beat of the heart before striking the keys at lightning speed, and then recoiled.

The style of Matt Home on drums was all wrists too.
He must possess real power in them because his upper body hardly moves, even when he is in full swing. They snapped and crackled through out the evening.

Matt Home - drums

Even though the night started out as a puzzle, and took time to warm up it ended in good heart. The future looks good too for the Twickenham Jazz Club.
I spent the last few late-night minutes at The Bloomsbury with 'The Dudes' who have been working on the clubs new website - www.twickenhamjazzclub.co.uk.



'Dude' Andy

We talked about the next TJC night which I'll miss unfortunately (21/03/2013: Willie Garnett and Enrico Tomasso Quartet) and the one after ,which I'll be sketching at, (25/04/2013: Georgia Mancio) and got a ringing endorsement from hot-blooded 'Dude' Andy.