Maciej Grzywacz & Nigel Price - Twin peaks

Maciej Grzywacz

Maciej Grzywacz - guitar
Nigel Price - guitar
Kelvin Christiane - tenor saxophone and flute
Richard Sadler - bass
Noel Joyce - drums
Lesley Christiane - vocals

Noel Joyce

Date - 22 March 2016
Venue -  Twickenham Jazz Club
Current Album Maciej Grzywacz - Solo (2015)

Nigel Price

Maciej Grzywacz is a guitarist and composer who hails from seaside resort of Sopot in Poland. He earned his music laurels from both the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw, Poland and the Higher School of Music in Munich, Germany. In addition to numerous concert and festival appearances in Poland, Maciej has toured in Canada, Israel and several countries in Europe, including Germany, France, Austria, Russia, Sweden, Finland, Bulgaria and Romania. He can now add England to this burgeoning list of nations after being the chosen recipient of the yearly cultural Jazz exchange between Twickenham Jazz Club and Poland.

 



Kelvin Christiane

Maciej Grzywacz has five albums as a leader to his credit - "Solo" recorded entirely on classical guitar, “Black Wine” with american drummer Clarence Penn and bassist Yasushi Nakamura, "Things Never Done" which features renowned New York trumpeter Avishai Cohen, "Forces Within" with Canadian drummer Tyler Hornby and "Fourth Dimension" with alto sax player Maciej Obara.

 

Maciej received a “Fryderyk”, Polish award nomination in the Jazz Album of The Year category twice.  He is a faculty member at Academy of Music in Gdansk, Poland.

 

Richard Sadler

A night dominated by the twin peaks of guitarists Maciej Grzywacz and Nigel Price although my sketch pad can never resist the walking totem of the moustachioed and besatcheled Richard Sadler.

 

Price toyed with us, his mouth opening and closing like the chomp of a Hungry Hippo, musical marbles poured out, cascading down the hill into the audience's laps. It was our job to keep on our toes, navigating Price's dexterous feints and jabs.

 

Faces of Nigel Price

Maciej Grzywacz is a roller skater, a glider, he sways in and out of Price's obstacles, rising above the plane on which our everyday ears twitch and stretch. Kelvin Christiane was full of capers, back to a carefree groove after months ploughing the winter furrow.

 

Always we were drawn back to the interplay between Grzywacz and Price. The former sang a light and soulful song while Price dug into clods of earth. Although the rise of Maciej lifted the spirits it was the lure of getting your hands dirty with Nigel that appealed to the filthy hearts of Jazz.

 

AL.

Lesley Christiane

 

 

Vasilis Xenopoulos & the Nigel Price Organ Trio

Vasilis Xenopoulos - Saxophone

You've got to hear this guy, they said.
He'll be worth it!

My muddied thoughts screamed STOP! The desire to knock him down after he had been built so high would be irresistible. Vasilis Xenopoulus' Jenga style rise had been remarkably solid in my mind as not only jazz fans but musicians too placed effusive bricks atop one another in a Empire State style ascension.

Nigel Price fan -
Peter Wild

Yesterday (19/09/2013) at Twickenham Jazz Club was the time for the uninitiated to choose whether to add another brick to his reputation or swing the wrecking ball in defiant mood. The club was completely packed, the crowd in generous mood despite the awkward suburban yoga when knee touches knee of complete strangers. Many had come through devotion to the leader of tonight's quartet, Nigel Price. I recognised the dashing Peter Wild, whose handsome Milk Tray Man profile stood out in the throng. All the ladies love chocolates it seems and Nigel Price, who has become the most popular performer since the Club re-launched 9 months ago.

Nigel Price

Despite his regular visits, Price keeps us on our toes, with a changing repertoire and new combinations of facial hair each time. This was a chance to hear his own work, a rich slice from his most recent recording Heads & Tails and some older still. Surprisingly nervous in speech, dexterous in motion on guitar and as always unassuming in demeanour he spent the evening bathed in blue shadows.

Paul Hutchings

Price, resplendent with new moustache
/goatee, sat astride his saloon chair like a diminutive cowboy or perhaps a wild west prospector, and he seemed to strike gold regularly. He excelled on 'All In' and drew the biggest roar for '4 on 6' which brought a hypnotic beat to our collective pulses, coursing the blood, and eventually stinging the hands in applause. His final tune of the night 'Go', recently penned, was a fine illustration of his clarity.

Matt Home - drums

The hot topic of debate on my pew was between Twickenham Jazz Club stalwarts Max Macson and Paul Hutchings who were discussing Matt Home's rimshots. Assuming this was an affliction which plagued drummers whose job requires them to permanently sit down only exposed my ignorance once again. Hutchings, an 'oily ragged' engineer and aficionado Macson put me right, giving me an analysis and dissection of rimshots on Brubeck 'Take Five'. Home was fluid throughout and his rimshots precisely hit their mark, the aforementioned '4 on 6' ringing true.

Peter Whittaker

'Stealing Time' was a favourite of the evening and none shone brighter than Peter Whittaker on organ. On the face of it an unlikely marriage, because the tune is a bossa nova based upon Kurt Weill's 'Speak Low' played by Whittaker who looks very much the stoic, sporting a side parting straighter than Gareth Bale. Whittaker flung off a perceived British reserve with his pumping carousel of notes that catapulted us into a bevvy of throbbing carnival beauties.

Kelvin Christiane -
Tenor

There was an audible sigh of disappointment when Kelvin Christiane came to the stand. Not because of the man himself but because he had left his baritone sax at home. His tenor duel on 'Voyage' dispelled the dark clouds, where Christiane was deep and intense. The saxophone's path wasn't always straightforward, but challenging compositions brought out the best in Vasilis Xenopoulos in particular. He blew his cheeks out in anticipation before attempting the frantic 'Its not alright with me',

Ted

Xenopoulus is a compact and powerful player, demonstrating a rapid peppering style during the 2 sets and especially on 'Stealing Time' where he was particularly uncomplicated, yet penetrating. He lived up to my expectations and I believe those of the audience too. Students of the genre developed creeping smiles that were hard to shake off like the man sitting opposite me. Ted, a sax player for 10 years, a student of Kelvin Christiane's for 3 of those, who turned to me after a Xenopoulos solo and said to me, "Learning to play the sax is hard work you know."
....and all I could think was, where would you start?
Even though the sensible answer would be to construct your knowledge and skill block by block, in all honesty I know my tower would have collapsed around my ankles long ago.

All credit to the talents that keep building theirs to the sky and beyond.

AL.

Georgia Mancio - Jazz's popular vote

Georgia Mancio

The public voted with their feet last Thursday (25/04/2013) at Twickenham Jazz Club by standing on them and applauding without constraint. In my short time as TJC's in-house artist this was the most positive response I have seen for any group. Sometimes you keep it simple, a trio, purity of voice, skill and intensity, the stars collide and BANG!

The performance had started much earlier in the day with a hot topic on the online agenda. Just that morning Big Bear Music had announced the nominations for their annual 'mainstream' British Jazz Awards (including TJC's Henry Armburg Jennings, and the imminent Julian Stringle). Despite not being nominated, tonight's guitarist Nigel Price had urged his friends to vote, citing it as a popular poll where the public had a chance to show their appreciation for once. He wrote,
 "The less we vote the more likely it is for the whole "jobs for the boys" mentality or cronyism to creep in."

He was challenged on this point by Jazz royalty's free spirit Gabriel Garrick
"Don't believe the hype!!
Awards only serve to further any existing exclusivity within any given area. They only reinforce more of the same dumb behaviour: that of encouraging blind following."

Nigel Price - Guitar

Nigel is never one to sit on the fence and his reasoning that followed was well balanced but unfortunately too long to reproduce, so here's a snippet,
"...it's still a totally open vote and if we get enough people to cast theirs then it could turn into a true representation of who and what musicians and non musicians alike find most worth applauding on a national scale.
What's wrong with that?"

Colin

Both had a point of course, Big Bear had pre-selected or chosen the nominations, so its wasn't entirely a free vote and yet here was a chance for our voice to be heard. An opportunity I grasped with both hands, well, at least my two digits on my laptop keyboard.

To metaphorically 'live or die' in front of an audience, Nigel Price has laid down the gauntlet this evening. With just three performers on the stage, there was nowhere to hide, although the mood lighting meant they operated like cold war spies in a purple tungsten glow. This was the cleverest of performances, full of subtleties, the trio tonight played their hands with a deftness that teased the crowd in front of them.

Larry Bartley - Bass

Georgia Mancio sat well back from the stage's edge, as though succumbing to an intolerance of 'The limelight'. This only pulled the audience forward and many of us sat with elbows on knees. Earlier in the week I had sketched the multi-instrumental-voiced singer Jan Ponsford for Mr Rainlore and Mancio's voice felt gentle in comparison. First impressions can be deceiving, it seems her power isn't like a wave that crashes over you but that lapping Mediterranean kind which casts the mind adrift into playful daydreams.

Nigel Price is a hard man to read visually, particularly this evening, he was flanked by the tall figure of Larry Bartley and willowy Mancio. This made him look like a grumpy garden gnome who was fishing for imaginary carp, an image that was totally dispelled once he reeled in the audience on the end of his guitar hooks. He looked happy. Excelling on Latin intricacies, like the samba styled Coots tune 'You go to my head'. His solo on 'That old black magic' was granted a standing ovation from TJC dude Colin amongst others.

Zoran Matic

I've drawn Larry Bartley before at Alex Hutton's Friday Nolias residency and knew I was in the company of a fellow artist, so I hope my drawings will find his approval. Larry and I weren't the only artists in attendance and I managed to get a quick sketch of an intense Zoran Matic.

Kelvin Christiane - Sax

Twickenham Jazz Club favourite Kelvin Christiane joined the trio for a superb Stanley Turrentine finale on Soprano and then chaos ensued. Price had earlier urged the public to vote for their heroes and his plea hadn't fallen on deaf ears. They stood and kept applauding until an encore was granted, confusion reigned because of Mancio's imminent Stansted flight to Germany and the Jazzahead Festival/Conference. She sacrificed her precious sleeping time and gave the people what they wanted.

Later that night a bewildered Nigel Price commented
"The crowd literally went mental!
It was a bit disconcerting in a way.
Very odd."
Well you asked for the people's opinion.
They voted for you, Georgia and Larry.

We still stand up for what we believe in!

AL.

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.