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Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club London |
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Review by
Steve BR |
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Ronnie Scott's 12th Jan 2008
I finally got my chance to visit
Ronnie Scotts Jazz Club in London at the weekend.
It was my 55th birthday treat having wanted to go there
for years.
My first impression was how small it was. I know that TV cameras
tend to enhance the images they broadcast but my
‘Minds eye’ was telling me not to expect a concert venue but a very
large room. It is actually quite a small club with not much space to
move around. |
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Natalie Williams |
The stage area is right on top of you and with a drum
kit, a double bass and a grand piano there isn’t room for much else.
Having said that they did manage to squeeze a Rhodes piano and a
NORD Stage synth on one side and a Yamaha synth with a moog sat on
the top on the other side. This left just enough space for the
soloist to stand in the middle.
Anyway the evening got underway with the house band imaginatively
named ‘The Ronnie Scot all Stars’, basically piano bass and drums
trio plus a guest vocalist. The guest in this case was a female
singer by the name of Natalie Williams. I know what your thinking
‘WHO’! So was I, but when you hear what she can do with that voice
you will want to find out more. She sang a series of jazz standards
like ‘They can’t take that away from me’, ‘Mack the Knife’ and ‘Cry
me a river’ but if you visit her web site or you tube page you
quickly realize she can sing anything extremely well. |
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The main performance of the evening was yet
another ‘Who’ artist by the name of GERARD PRESENCER.
Gerard Presencer is universally recognized as one of the best
trumpet / flugelhorn players in his field. His most celebrated
recorded performance, which has lead to his being described as
"subliminally, the most famous trumpeter in the world", is his solo
work on the 3 million selling album by US3, "Hand on the Torch"
(1993) on Blue Note. It is Gerards' trumpet that is featured so
heavily on the big hit of that CD, Cantaloop.
Presencer was born in London on September 12, 1972. At the age of 11
he became a member of the National Youth Jazz Orchestra and at the
age of 15 he made his recording debut with the alto Peter King.
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At the age of 18 he
was first noticed on the world stage for his work with Rolling
Stones drummer Charlie Watts, whom he continues to work with;
writing, producing and playing. In 1991 Charlie Watts formed his
Quintet with Presencer, saxophonist Peter King, bassist David Green
and pianist Brian Lemon.The group toured the world and released
several albums in the next years.
His style of jazz is a mixture of different formats resulting in
what used to be called ‘Progressive Jazz’ but is now more frequently
referred to as ‘Acid Jazz’.
It’s not my bag really but you have to admire the people who play
it.
The problem I have with it is unlike Traditional or Modern jazz that
starts off with a recognisable tune, goes off at a tangent and then
comes back to the original melody, ‘Acid Jazz’ launches itself into
outer space and doesn’t come back, leaving you feeling as though
your hanging in mid air.
Then before you know it your off on another journey. |
Gerard Presencer |
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Gerard was performing with a new band (Into The
Blue) he has recently formed.
The line up was 2 keyboard players, a bass player (Double and
Electric) and drummer. Gerard plays flugelhorn mostly and was using
a vocal harmony gizmo which gave the horn a very fat sound.
The members of the band were all brilliant musicians in their own
right and the drummer had a superb soulful voice.
It was a great experience going to Ronnie Scotts and
I will definitely go back again, but next time I would like to see
someone like The Paul Jones Blues Band who played their recently or
Mica Paris who is due to play there at the end of January. |
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