Upcoming Gigs

Ronnie Scott's just keeps pulling them out of the bag - two great performances this week from Swiss trumpet maestro Erik Truffaz, and guitar hero Stanley Jordan...

Truffaz (Monday) has long been someone I've enjoyed, as much for his willingness to experiment outside the traditional jazz realms as anything else - in particular, albums "The Dawn" and "Bending New Corners" showed how he could meld jazz with ideas taken from DnB and trip-hop to great effect. For this gig, he was showcasing his 'Mexico' project with Murcof on electronics and Talvin Singh on tabla. Truffaz has always struck me as a relatively understated player, which is no criticism, but he really took something of a back seat to Singh's amazingly expressive and dextrous tabla work - it's such a diverse, lyrical instrument and offers a complete tonal palette all of its own and despite a few technical issues with his mics, he drew the biggest cheers of the night. Murcof provided electronic soundscapes and beats as a canvas for Truffaz and Singh to paint over, giving a backdrop that was often complemented by Truffaz's use of delay and loop effects. To be honest, I might have preferred to see a bit more actual playing from the trumpeter, but in the context of this music (which reminded me a lot of some of the trip-hop and trance soundscape stuff I've heard at the dance/chillout stages of various festivals over the years rather than any jazz I've listened too recently) each note was chosen and manipulated to fit with its surroundings. An enjoyable and interesting, if occasionally a little samey set that went down very well with the mixed young crowd.

Stanley Jordan (Tuesday)...where to begin? As a true pioneer on his instrument, Jordan has always commanded attention for his awesome, jaw-dropping technical ability. This has at times, and especially in his earlier days, let him get away with being guilty of the old style-over-substance issue – check out a few Youtube videos such as this one (www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHZTyfKseZE) to see what I mean; beautiful, stunning playing but perhaps not quite enough attention to nuance and detail. Just don’t judge the man on his suit. Tuesday’s concert however proved he’s still got ‘The Magic Touch’ and showed what maturity will do for you. Joined by the equally impressive rhythm section of Kennwood Dennard on drums and the fretless bass monster that is Charnett Moffett (Wow. Just wow...), Stanley still managed to leave jaws on the floor but with a subtlety I’ve not heard in his older work. The pyrotechnics were all still there but rather than just an explosive onslaught, we were treated to a carefully orchestrated and controlled fireworks display where the music came first – each phrase, each lightning fast run fitted beautifully into the track, and the band was at its best in the more straight-ahead bop-ish numbers allowed the audience to concentrate less on how the notes were being played and more on the choice of notes themselves.

The compulsory solo spots allowed Jordan to showboat somewhat, but there was a sense of things being more measured than they might have been a decade ago. That’s not to say there weren’t a few flashes of trickery, such as playing with one hand on the guitar and one on the piano, swapping at will (Horace Silver’s ‘Song For My Father’ was a highlight’), or even when two hands weren’t enough and strings were plucked with his chin – I’ll repeat that for the kids at the back...WITH HIS CHIN - but again, these were neatly incorporated into the overall sound rather than obscuring it with. A distorted Steve Vai-esque ending to ‘Stairway To Heaven’ and ‘Eleanor Rigby’ as an encore rounded the night off in exuberant style, and I left the club feeling I had watched a rather different performance than I would have in the past. Stanley is playing at the top of his game, and if you have the opportunity to catch him live or check out his new album (which I’ve yet to track down myself but on the basis of this gig should be a winner), I doubt you’ll be disappointed.