Jazz breaking news: Nu Civilisation Orchestra roll back the years with Stravinsky-Parker Soundclash
Monday, March 5, 2012
While a meteor flashed across the skies of England at the weekend a “fire in the sky” of a different dimension entirely was well underway at the Purcell Room, where the Nu Civilisaton Orchestra presented Firebird, a Stravinsky-Parker Sound Clash.
An enlightened concept of lateral thinking, the idea was to make links between the bebop years and the classical composer of the time who most understood the intentions and concepts of Charlie Parker and the bop pioneers, although soundclash also suggests a Jamaican twist.
The main focus of the evening was in the second half with the performance of Ebony Concerto, Stravinsky’s work commissioned by Woody Herman in 1946. The evening also featured new work, most notably Binker Golding’s Dionysian suite ‘The Maenads’, Peter Edwards’ ‘Blues Ostinata’ and Edwards’ arrangement of Steve Williamson’s ‘How High The Bird’, itself a variant on ‘How High The Moon’, with a MBASE-like duelling two-tenor twist, which was one of the best things about this show. Zem Audu, one of the sparring tenorists, back from the States where he has been touring with the Skatalites, and newcomer Will Gibson showed their mettle. The concert lacked a bit of pace at times, but highlights outweighed the brief duller moments and Edwards conducted confidently enough and his piano contributions added a zest to the big band, yet Golding had the swagger to bring the evening alive. Zem Audu’s solo on Joe Henderson’s ‘Inner Urge’ hit the ground running and the 18-piece orchestra showed considerable potential.
– Stephen Graham
Nu Civilisation Orchestra play Turner Sims in Southampton on 28 April