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Tribute To Joe Zawinul - Django Bates/Victor Bailey/BBC Big Band – Barbican, 25 Nov – LJF

Joe Zawinul’s untimely death in September meant his scheduled collaboration with the BBC Big Band at the Barbican did not happen. However, the show went on with British keyboard player Django Bates stepping into the great man’s shoes, a fine choice given his similar talent of being able to extract organic sounds from synthesizers. Joining Bates and the Big Band was one of Zawinul’s most prolific collaborators, bassist Victor Bailey. MC’d by Julian Joseph with contributions from Zawinul biographer Brian Glasser, the evening was more than just a concert, serving as a superb tribute to the man and his music.

Opening with the classic ‘Black Market’, Victor Bailey on bass and a supercharged Martin France on drums kicked up a fearsome groove, while Django Bates seemed to be enjoying every minute and certainly proving he was up to the momentous task of replacing Zawinul. Stan Sulzmann stepped up to the front to take the tenor solo, providing a good approximation of Wayne Shorter’s style, but the big band didn’t really get into the groove until the second number, a medley of ‘Badia’ and ‘Boogie Woogie Waltz’.

By the time of the burning ‘Fast City’ the big band were at the top of their game, playing complex passages without blinking, while recreating the intensity of the original Weather Report recording. Henry Lowther played a haunting flugelhorn solo on ‘In A Silent Way’, a poignant moment for many people in the audience. Django Bates’s contributions to the whole evening were excellent, with his keyboard sounds blending in with the big band contributions in the spirit of Joe’s final album with the NDR Big Band, ‘Brown Street’ which was superbly recreated at the Barbican both as a tribute to the immortal Joe Zawinul and a reminder of the vibrancy of his music.

Mark Trounson

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Tribute To Joe Zawinul - Django Bates/Victor Bailey/BBC Big Band – Barbican, 25 Nov – LJF

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Neil Cowley Trio – Cargo, London 2/4/08

Last night The Neil Cowley Trio launched their new album Loud…Louder…Stop! at trendy Shoreditch club Cargo, not usually the kind of venue you’d expect to find a piano trio playing. But then they aren’t your typical piano trio. As the audience files in there’s a building sense of excitement and by the time Cowley and Co. take to the stage the room is jammed full. “Aren’t you going to cheer us on?” Cowley quips wryly. This sets the tone for the evening to follow, music matching Cowley’s playful, fun and excitable personality.

Portico Quartet plus Basquiat Strings - Union Chapel, London Friday 22 February

Basquiat Strings take the starkness of modern classical music and wrap it around a subtly pervading jazz beat. But while they maintain the haunting quality of classical string music, they generate an atmosphere which is constantly disconcerting and pleasantly surprising.

Dave Liebman/Phil Robson Quartet, RNCM, 31 January 2008

With the raw expressionism of John Coltrane, the punchy ballistics of Michael Brecker, the harmonic invention of Wayne Shorter: saxophonist Dave Liebman tells the story of the modern jazz saxophone. Particularly memorable was his meditative rendition of Coltrane’s ‘India’. As engaging as any solo was his magnanimous stage presence; the hunched shoulders, the facial contortions and the limp. You could feel the blood and sweat of an artist truly committed to what he really believes is important.