IT seemed too long since I'd seen and listened to the kind of band
young saxophonist Russell Cowieson has assembled. When the first wave of
young jazz talent emerged in Scotland in the eighties, the London
fashion for sharp suits and straight bop was adopted lock, stock, and
barrel.
Since then the chaps involved in the John Rae Collective have all gone
in their own directions, albeit still appearing in one another's bands.
Cowieson, from the next generation, has not exactly gone back to basics
but his quintet is smartly turned out (bassist Gary Fimister even kept
his jacket on for the whole gig) and draws its repertoire from that
golden era.
Their reading of Rogers and Hart's There's a Small Hotel was pure
Miles Davis first quintet -- Cowieson and trumpeter Colin Steele are a
very tight front line. There were few originals in the set, but their
book is carefully chosen avoiding the over familiar. Here were Ralph
Moore's Freeway, Freddie Hubbard's Dear John and Bobby Watson's Jazz
Messengers tune In Case You Missed It -- all well worth the time of
night.
Importantly there was none of the po-facedness which attended much bop
revivalism. This was fun, solos liberally peppered with quotes from
other tunes -- including a very slick exchange of fours with drummer
Paddy Flaherty on Hank Mobley's This I Dig of You.
It's important that we can still hear this stuff live, because it is
some of the best jazz music ever -- and I don't know where you'd have to
go to hear it better played.
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