Ronnie Scott's All-Stars
I don’t think I’ve ever been to watch a night of live music where the songs played have adhered to such a specific time period. We were only going to be hearing tunes written in 1959 – the year that shaped jazz. This was the year when the apex was reached; Miles Davis released ‘Kind Of Blue’, Charles Mingus brought us ‘Ah Um’ and John Coltrane really began to push the boundary on ‘Blue Train’. Not only that, but it was also the year Ronnie Scott opened his first club in London.
A full house greeted the quintet who took the stage and launched into a rendition of the fast paced Mingus number Better Git It In Your Soul. A screen behind the band showed images of classic album covers from 1959 and during the set also showed events of world importance that occurred. Saxophonist and band leader Alex Garnett took time between songs to explain the context of the music we were hearing, telling us why the year has taken on such significance and generally to provide humorous anecdotes. The first one hour set flew by and featured moments of true brilliance. I never thought I’d get the chance to hear selections from ‘Kind Of Blue’ or pieces by Bill Evans & Horace Silver performed live by world class musicians.
After a brief interval we were back in our seats for the second hour set, which began with Dave Brubeck’s Take Five, a song which has completely transcended the era from which it comes. The second set introduced some slightly more challenging music, especially when touching on Ornette Coleman’s ‘The Shape Of Jazz To Come’ album. More than any other album released that year, this was the one which split critics and fans alike, even Miles Davis dismissed it, despite the fact within a few years his own music demonstrated he had clearly been influenced by it. Each of the All-Stars took solos during the songs – Norwich born trumpet player Freddie Gavita getting extra loud applause and Chris Higginbotham really impressing behind the kit.
On reflection the first half slightly edged it for me, by virtue of the fact that I was more familiar with the music, but I came home wanting to investigate some key albums. It also made me marvel at how many people claim to not like jazz, surely only because they have not spent any time actually listening to it. All of the music we heard last night was exciting, beautiful, ambitious, emotional and ultimately 57 years old. Honestly, you have to wonder just how much of today’s music will still be pushing boundaries in over half a century’s time?
