Maurizio Minardi - Blind Bee Jazz

Maurizio Minardi - Accordion

A second visit within a fortnight to Jazz at Blind Bee (1 CHANGE ALLEY, LONDON EC3V 3ND) saw this night start to evolve from chrysalis to butterfly with the performance of Maurizio Minardi's quartet (18/09/2014).

Shirley Smart - Cello

If you haven't visited the venue then give it a go, with free entry and a sophisticated ambience it has the wind behind it, but there are the twin issues of background noise and lighting still overcome. Despite all 4 musicians dwelling in the darkest corner you cannot ignore the figurehead of Maurizio Minardi and his accordion. A man who reveals so little through his persona yet lays a whole gamut of emotions at your feet through his music.

You never forget the first time that Michael Nyman's music cascades over you. Its unrelenting waves, the pulse, the queer emotions that release themselves. Minardi undoubtedly possesses this power of simplicity too. At first his accordion marched us along with wheeze and guff, but alongside Shirley Smart on cello this soon turned to drama. Our emotions squirming out of safe hands and physically it felt though they had spilled out onto the floor before us.

Milko Ambrogini - Bass

It was such a broad range of speeds, themes and colours from Maurizio Minardi, with joy and menace in tunes that spoke of Germanic deaths, darker corners and Grimm fairytales. Alongside Shirley Smart they painted the pastoral too, a slow hollow-hearted start led to a landscape at peace, with a fresh wetness to the grass and a vastness to the sky ranging above us.

Marco Quarantotto - bass

Marco Quarantotto is fast becoming a favourite of mine to draw, his mushroom cloud of hair always appears to have exploded after a particularly strenuous attack of the drums. He imbibes in quiet moments and I catch the thought of Henry Spencer of Eraserhead fame under the Blind Bee's electric blue light. Milko Ambrogini unfortunately languished (only pictorially) in the pit of the dark. I made a sketch of what I saw but it might have been Nosferatu playing the bass for all I knew, such was the cloak of blackness that surrounded him.

The music was so strong it transcended light and dark, it rose and fell, it sparked with emotive charge. We even had time for a chase sequence that propelled the quartet along the narrowed streets of ours mind. Though we ran and ran, throats burning and with oversized hearts bursting, it was joy we felt. Pure unadulterated joy.

You/we have the opportunity to hear both Maurizio Minardi and Shirley Smart with Melange tomorrow night September 24th at The Vortex.

AL.

Will Butterworth Quartet at Blind Bee Jazz

Nick Pini - Bass

It was a descent into London's subterranean vaults to realise that Will Butterworth and his quartet need more air to breathe and more people to hear their story. It was a first visit (04/09/2014) to a new night at the exclusive Eight Members Club, near Bank station and in the dark heart of the city.

The night, Jazz at the Blind Bee, is currently being established by Middle East music specialist Shirley Smart. The inaugural gig in August was reserved for the talents of Alex Hutton and he was followed by Will Butterworth, a new visitor to the Art of Jazz sketchbook. All the nights start at 8pm, but you'll have to be on the list to get in! Negotiating stubborn bouncers will not be a problem just email jazz@eightmemberclub.co.uk or join the next gig at www.facebook.com/blindbeejazz

You would imagine, a descent into the city's heart of darkness would be as disorientating as Joseph Conrad's novel itself and you would be right. Several flights of stairs flush you out into a plush interior that is less Congo than opulent urban cool. Jazz it seems would be a perfect bedfellow for this world but it will need Shirley Smart and a few more gigs to make sure that Jazz at Blind Bee doesn't die horribly like Kurtz himself. It will need the jazz crowd to match the city workers in numbers and make them take notice.

Marco Quarantotto - drums

This was not a night for authors to set their scenes with lengthy prologues despite Will Butterworth's current muse being Oscar Wilde. It was the time to grasp the fleeting moment, to capture the ephemeral in your mind before the thudding bass of nearby establishments drove Butterworth's music from your heart.

The first tune 'Cage' gave me a mere glance at the assembled musicians, Seb Pipe immediately drawing the attention on alto saxophone. It was the second, 'The Nightingale', that let the pencil and mind roam with freedom. Nick Pini (Bass) was both dark in timbre as well as in light and I could just see his silhouette and few wisps of ruddy hair in the gloom. The opening third was slow and easy, pedestrian, not in insult but in appreciation. It made you want to strut with latent power rather than frivolity. With the kind of walk that makes people take notice, whether you prowl a New York Avenue or Bromley High Street.

Will Butterwoth - piano

The middle third of 'The Nightingale' danced with the rapidity of ideas. This was a conversation, one in tone and pace that was quicker than the brain can compute. An enigma machine would have been needed to dissect it's full meanings. There was beauty too, especially when Will Butterworth (piano) was all alone. He was a pensive runaway and there was joy in his escape and flight.

The final third gave us notes to question, a mystery, a conundrum. The mullet and brush, one held in either hand of Marco Quarantotto set the theme. There was a choking swirl from Seb Pipe's saxophone lifting us out of the depths of London. We rose into an in-between world, one very much like the city after the Footsie has shut down for night.

Seb Pipe - saxophone

'Lizard Blues' gave us a quick palate cleanser. The Rhythm section of Pini and Quarantotto were the belt that keep the rolling sax of Pipe from flopping over it's waistband. It was as though he was gorging himself on an abundance of fingers foods, quick bites that slid down our throats without even a hint of a chew.

AL.

Jazz night's at the Blind Bee is worth supporting and exploring more, coming up is Maurizio Minardi  (Sept 18th) and Al Scott (Oct 2nd). Don't forget it's Free Entry.