Newton Conference Centre, Nairn, Thursday 7 August 2003

THIS WAS a very typical event for the jazz festival. A group of seven musicians was assembled under the leadership of festival mainstay Warren Vache to blow in semi-arranged fashion on a series of familiar standards, interspersed with solo outings in which each player had a chance to work out with the rhythm section (or, in the case of pianist Brian Kellock, literally solo).

As such, it had the strengths and weaknesses of any such set up. The preparation time did not allow for any real development of the material for the full ensemble, beyond working out some attractive twists here and there. Vache ruefully admitted that they had cooked up just such an ending for Tadd Dameron’s ‘Our Delight’, only he alone forgot to do it.

The frequent coming and going of players on stage also worked against getting the most from the ensemble aspects of the package, and inevitably threw the spotlight firmly back onto soloing. And pretty impressive it was, too. Highlights included Jesse Davis’s fluent and inventive treatment of ‘Embraceable You’, Kellock’s solo creation, Joe Cohn’s liquid guitar work, and Vache’s own ballad outing on ‘Angel Eyes’.

A Latinised versioned of ‘Love for Sale’ from trombonist John Allred didn’t quite work as a piece, but did maintain the standard of soloing, and both bassist Jay Leonhart and drummer Joe Ascione chipped in with solo contributions of their own. Vache called the tunes throughout the set, as was his prerogative as leader, and full group selections like ‘Our Delight’, ‘Stella By Starlight’ and ‘Day By Day’ proved hugely enjoyable.

The concert opened with a high-powered duo set from WE, trombonist Wycliffe Gordon and pianist Eric Reed. The pair are old sparring partners, and pushed each other to extravagant flights of improvisatory invention on tunes like Duke Ellington’s ‘Caravan’ (Gordon’s huffing low register introduction could have been a dijerdoo rather than trombone) and J. J. Johnson’s ‘Lament’.

The concert was too long, which is par for the course at Nairn, but the players undoubtedly succeeded in matching quantity with quality.

The Nairn Jazz Festival 2003 continues until Saturday 9 August.

© Kenny Mathieson, 2003