TOMMY SMITH QUARTET
Zeffirellis, Ambleside - Friday 9th November, 2018
Zeffirellis, Ambleside - Friday 9th November, 2018
Zeffirellis is a located in the heart of the Lake District, and offers its very own Jazz Bar where one can partake of good food and drink and of course enjoy some great music. This was especially true last Friday, when Tommy Smith and his Quartet presented their Embodying The Light programme celebrating the music of John Coltrane.
If the album of the same name, released last year marking the fiftieth anniversary of Coltrane's passing and also Smith's fiftieth birthday, was good it in some ways still did not prepare us for the sheer force of nature that is the quartet when heard live and in such conducive environment as an intimate venue as this.
The quartet of Smith on tenor, pianist Pete Johnstone, Calum Gourley on double bass, and drummer Sebastiaan De Krom do not shy away from the music of one of the very greatest jazz musicians, but positively embrace it in a way that it is much more than paying lip service by mixing Coltrane's music with original pieces by Tommy Smith that show just how far the music can be developed and brought to life without slavishly copying, and never being in awe or afraid to bring their own personalities to the music in a way that communicates directly with past and present.
The quartet play acoustically with no amplification, and this perhaps is why the empathy and interaction between all four musicians is so acutely attuned to both each other and the material. The degree in which the band functioned as one, listening intently and reacting in the moment was staggering, and throughout two sets the band kept an attentive audience on the edge of their seats.
The first set opened with two Coltrane pieces, the first from A Love Supreme was 'Resolution' with a superb pizzacato introduction from Gourley that led into Smith's declamatory opening statement and reading of the well known theme, to be followed by what was to be the first of some hard swinging solos from Pete Johnstone which was full of invention. Bringing the tempo down, this was followed by 'Dear Lord' where the audience could relax and luxuriate in Smith's breathtakingly beautiful sound. The title track of the album, 'Embodying The Light', aka 'Blues In F' picked up the pace again with an expansive and melodic solo from the bassist and another measured and carefully developed solo from Johnstone before Smith takes a superb solo with the piano laying out mid way leaving the saxophonist to be powered along by bass and drums.
Highlights continued to come thick and fast, with another Smith original, 'Transformation' that is based on 'Impressions' and was written by a 14 year old Tommy Smith under the original title of 'Trane-ing For Life', with its languid opening tenor statement leading into the faster theme and an absolutely storming solo from the leader, who also blew up a storm on 'I Want To Talk About You'.
Perhaps the finest performance of the night was heard on 'Father, Son & Holy Ghost' from Trane's Meditation album, with the audience transfixed by the authority of the tenor playing but the powerful emotion under restraint from the quartet.
The concert closed with another Smith original, 'Embodying The Darkness' featuring Calum Gourley again with an absorbing introduction, with his superb tone on the bass heard magnificently in this acoustic setting. Johnstone was again heard in a fine solo from the ominous beginnings from the pianist before his irrepressible sense of melody took over. After the piano solo the tenor and drum duet that had been brewing all evening finally erupted in an intense and hard won finale.
If this band elicits some of Smith's fiercest playing, a far cry from the stoic saxophone playing heard on the 'Modern Jacobite' album, then it is always with a sense of logic and control that underpins the urgency within the solos. Never a free player, Smith is able to take his solos far enough out to create excitement and tension, yet never losing sight of the demands of the music.
Reviewed by Nick Lea
If the album of the same name, released last year marking the fiftieth anniversary of Coltrane's passing and also Smith's fiftieth birthday, was good it in some ways still did not prepare us for the sheer force of nature that is the quartet when heard live and in such conducive environment as an intimate venue as this.
The quartet of Smith on tenor, pianist Pete Johnstone, Calum Gourley on double bass, and drummer Sebastiaan De Krom do not shy away from the music of one of the very greatest jazz musicians, but positively embrace it in a way that it is much more than paying lip service by mixing Coltrane's music with original pieces by Tommy Smith that show just how far the music can be developed and brought to life without slavishly copying, and never being in awe or afraid to bring their own personalities to the music in a way that communicates directly with past and present.
The quartet play acoustically with no amplification, and this perhaps is why the empathy and interaction between all four musicians is so acutely attuned to both each other and the material. The degree in which the band functioned as one, listening intently and reacting in the moment was staggering, and throughout two sets the band kept an attentive audience on the edge of their seats.
The first set opened with two Coltrane pieces, the first from A Love Supreme was 'Resolution' with a superb pizzacato introduction from Gourley that led into Smith's declamatory opening statement and reading of the well known theme, to be followed by what was to be the first of some hard swinging solos from Pete Johnstone which was full of invention. Bringing the tempo down, this was followed by 'Dear Lord' where the audience could relax and luxuriate in Smith's breathtakingly beautiful sound. The title track of the album, 'Embodying The Light', aka 'Blues In F' picked up the pace again with an expansive and melodic solo from the bassist and another measured and carefully developed solo from Johnstone before Smith takes a superb solo with the piano laying out mid way leaving the saxophonist to be powered along by bass and drums.
Highlights continued to come thick and fast, with another Smith original, 'Transformation' that is based on 'Impressions' and was written by a 14 year old Tommy Smith under the original title of 'Trane-ing For Life', with its languid opening tenor statement leading into the faster theme and an absolutely storming solo from the leader, who also blew up a storm on 'I Want To Talk About You'.
Perhaps the finest performance of the night was heard on 'Father, Son & Holy Ghost' from Trane's Meditation album, with the audience transfixed by the authority of the tenor playing but the powerful emotion under restraint from the quartet.
The concert closed with another Smith original, 'Embodying The Darkness' featuring Calum Gourley again with an absorbing introduction, with his superb tone on the bass heard magnificently in this acoustic setting. Johnstone was again heard in a fine solo from the ominous beginnings from the pianist before his irrepressible sense of melody took over. After the piano solo the tenor and drum duet that had been brewing all evening finally erupted in an intense and hard won finale.
If this band elicits some of Smith's fiercest playing, a far cry from the stoic saxophone playing heard on the 'Modern Jacobite' album, then it is always with a sense of logic and control that underpins the urgency within the solos. Never a free player, Smith is able to take his solos far enough out to create excitement and tension, yet never losing sight of the demands of the music.
Reviewed by Nick Lea
