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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

Bobby Wellins Quartet
Bobby Wellins/Kate Williams Duo

Saturday 28 June

Few tenor players have as distinctive a sound as that of Bobby Wellins: from just a few notes, his slightly foggy warble, laced with definitively human characteristics (vulnerability and dry wit chief among them) is instantly identifiable, and his opening set, a duo with pianist Kate Williams (perceptively suggested by that great jazz listener, Seb Scotney) showcased it to perfection.

Opened and closed with Cole Porter tunes, and fleshed out with Kenny Wheeler’s ‘Everybody’s Song but My Own’ and Williams originals, the Wellins­Williams set was delicate and sensitive, yet powerful and robust where appropriate, Williams’s trademark subtle rhythmic displacements tellingly deployed to complement Wellins’s ease, elegance and touching grace.

Introduced with the saxophonist’s characteristic self-deprecating humour (in response to Williams’s suggestion that their announcements were being shared for democratic reasons, he drily corrected her: ‘No, it’s Help the Aged’), this was an entrancing hour’s worth of music from two highly compatible and accomplished players.

For the second set, Wellins was accompanied by his regular band ­ pianist Liam Noble, bassist Dave Whitford, drummer Dave Wickins ­ so there was slightly more steeliness to his tone at times, although on such material as Jobim’s ‘Favella’ the wispy, rarefied sound came into its own, as in the first set. For the rest, the band relaxed into extended workouts on such favourites as ‘On Green Dolphin Street’, enabling Noble in particular to demonstrate his uncanny ability to winkle continually surprising solos from the corners of sequences, bringing a delighted smile to Wellins’s face on a number of occasions.

With Wickins ringing the percussive changes with great aplomb ­ his choice of textures exemplary throughout ­ and Whitford soloing with his customary eloquence, this was a thoroughly engaging set that not only perfectly balanced the first but also absorbed and delighted in equal measure. A great evening’s music from a true master.

 

 

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