Gareth Roberts on trombone and leader of this great five piece unit treated us, along with his front line trumpet player Gethin Liddington to a rare display of fiery and passionate brass playing at its very best. Blending tunes from his album ‘Attack of the Killer Penguins’ with jazz standards, Roberts featured on a Latin flavoured ‘How High the Moon’, using his unaccompanied intro to great effect and using the full range of his ‘bone with an acrobatic display of virtuosity. Roberts worked well with the audience telling anecdotes and stories - he was totally at home here at BMJ.
Liddington on trumpet again showed why he is such a busy musician. He played a huge part in performing the title track from the album with a difficult arrangement - what a great reader. As a front line player, Liddington took on a large portion of the solo work and showed us that he has a very melodic approach.
As the interval arrived gasps of despair were heard from the kitchen: “the curry will be delayed”. But the band came to the rescue and played an extended first set: my hunger pangs were soon forgotten.
The second set continued with another mixture of tunes notably 'Mop Dancing' featuring the ever popular and more than competent rhythm section Paul Jones on keyboards, Chris O’Connor double bass and my favourite drummer Mark O’Connor. My only complaint is that it’s getting very hard to tell the O’Connor’s apart these days what with haircuts and matching Dai caps.
The band finished with a blues Dysgu Cyrfi (learning to count) written by Roberts that was inspired by Paula Gardiner, a great finale to another brilliant evening of live jazz.
As I looked over my shoulder someone left by the kitchen door “No it can’t be” Gordon Ramsey!!!!! And you’re right - it wasn’t.
©
Peter Scaddan
2007