ON THE LIVE SCENE COMING UP THE VIVID VIBES OF STEVE NELSON AT THE PIZZA ON THURSDAY IS GIG OF THE MONTH
CURRENT TIDES: Nelson, 72, was excellent with Oran Etkin and Charenée Wade at
the same venue
(click for a review) in 2015.
Left-handed flying Dutchman Joris Teepe is his bassist for this
upcoming show —
Nelson and Teepe impressed together on
A Common Language.
Darren Beckett is on drums, the top Northern Irishman who lives in Brighton — heard accompanying
Freddie Hendrix
recently down by the Garavogue at Lillie’s in spiritual Sligo.
The Shavian, Netherlands-based, English jazzer Barry Green is on piano — Barry was superb on
Stephensong,
marlbank‘s top UK jazz album selected for the whole of last year.
Nelson, we reckon, is just about the world’s greatest jazz vibist. That’s dependent on taste, of course and note it’s about players who haven’t begun to prop up the daisies (earth deep on the other side of the soil the choice is Lionel Hampton, Milt Jackson, Bobby Hutcherson whose recorded legacy still inspires).
We like swinging straightahead approaches most, therefore he’s the one — basically a Bags-it-up
approach in the image of Milt Jackson but reaching out to other approaches too.
Also in our list: No. 2 Joe Locke; 3 Mulatu Astatke; 4 Joel Ross; 5 Jim Hart;
6 Orphy Robinson; 7 Anthony Kerr; 8 Sasha Berliner; 9 Lewis Wright; 10 Teena Lyle.
[NB: for the avoidance of doubt Gary Burton would be in the list, very high up, if still gigging]
There may be some exciting new places opening up but the old jazz places haven’t gone away, you know. Case in point the Pizza Express Live, on Dean Street, Soho, London who welcome the great vibist Steve Nelson back to the club this week with a top band of English, Northern Irish and Dutch players. Photo: marlbank
