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June 2008
gig reviews

Round Trip
Jason Yarde - Trio WAH!
In Cahoots Sextet
Finn Peters Finntet
Barcode Trio /
Leo Altarelli
Bobby Wellins/Kate Williams

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June 2008 gig reviews by Chris Parker

Barcode Trio
Leo Altarelli

Friday 27June

Barcode Trio’s 2003 four-track mini-CD features them live at the Glastonbury Festival, and there is an air of ‘crossover’ about them that has led to their being compared with EST, though another reference point, the Ramsey Lewis Trio, is perhaps more apposite, since the bands share an appetite for getting into an easygoing but funky groove and staying there.

On this occasion, their ‘jazz’ set (which actually involved a quartet, with the addition of a trumpet) adhered to this formula, calling another recent ‘crossover’ success to mind: the Neil Cowley Trio. The two bands are also similar in favouring repetitive, catchy riffing over melodic or improvisational variation.

Barcode Trio’s audience responded to the resultant ‘party’ atmosphere in kind: instead of the customary rapt Vortex hush, there was a babble of conversation.

This quartet performance was preceded by a series of mini-sets involving the brothers Pescod performing non-jazz material with piano and guitar accompaniment, plus a brief introductory set from singer/guitarist Leo Altarelli.

The latter proved the highlight of the evening. Altarelli has a fine, affecting, flexible but strong voice, his delivery subtly yet drivingly rhythmic, courtesy of a sure but unfussy guitar technique and a compelling vocal style a little reminiscent of John Martyn.

His songs’ lyrics strike a judicious balance between the colloquially intimate and the formally poetic, and his stage presence is assured but laced with just enough self-deprecation to amuse. It would be good to hear a much longer set from him.

 

 

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