Ralph Moore closes UK Homecoming Tour in style at Imber Court

The chance to hear an artist of Ralph Moore’s stature close-to was too good to miss for this audience, present in number for what turned out to be a concert where heightened expectations were exceeded from the off. The last in a ten-gig sequence (Moore was flying back to Los Angeles a day later) badged as his ‘Homecoming Tour’ by organiser/bassist Simon Woolf, it took wing on the fact that the 68-year old Moore’s musical beginnings were in Brixton where he was born in 1956 and that it was about time he re-connected with his birth country. Still it was his mid-teens relocation to the US which formed him as the now-famous ‘gutsy, cogent tenor player’ he has become, this sparking any number of spectacular associations, viz Horace Silver, Ray Haynes, Freddie Hubbard, JJ Johnson et al. So, high time to show off his hard bop prowess to his home-town friends and others, you could say.

His appearances back here have been few – hence Woolf’s enterprise and how welcome it was. His gigs used a rotating cadre of accompanying musicians but it was Imber Court’s Carole Merritt’s bright idea to team Moore with fellow Berklee School alumnus Vasilis Xenopoulos, making this a two-tenor spectacular. The Greek star confessed that he had first been alerted to Moore’s exceptional qualities as a teen age tenor student in Athens and had revered his playing ever since. The stage was thus set.

Moore is mid-height, compact, restrained in demeanour but eager to please. He bends forward slightly as he plays, purposeful, each phrase direct and unadorned, the note placements precise. It’s his tone that attracts, deep, certainly ‘gutsy’, the resolutions to his phrases momentarily reminiscent of Coltrane, the notes sustained with a Gordon-like blare. You get the idea that nothing of this is accidental but clearly intended. It’s called authority.  In contrast the younger man was emotion personified, passionate, often joyful, caught up in the inspiration of the moment, and wonderfully expressive. His solos are shapely, sometimes over-endowed with decoration but firmly swinging. He may have deferred to Moore’s seniority but paid him the best possible compliment by not hanging back. No coasting or reticence for Vasilis. 

All of this came true on Lee Morgan’s fine tune ‘Ceora’, taken at medium tempo, Moore up first, playing a careful hand, letting the tune reveal itself, pianist Fraser Urquhart giving it a bluesy feel, Woolf pacing panther-like as Mark Taylor rattled his drums and lit the fire below, Vasilis hurdling the changes. Then came a series of standards, Moore opting for ‘Alone Together’, allowing that tone to resonate, Vasilis alongside and Urquhart looking for boppish lines, with emphatic chords. ‘Old Folks’ went well, too, before ‘Blue ‘N Boogie’ taken at pace allowed both men to play catch as catch can, Moore’s groove impressive, with Vasilis marking time, before he resumed with added zest. Honours even, I’d say, with Taylor’s strong solo kicking off the final riffs.

Second half pleasures included fine readings of ‘I’ll Remember April’ and ‘My Romance’ before Blue Mitchell’s ‘Fungi Mama’ reached the parts that others hadn’t, both men up on their toes and determined, Moore inserting a momentary allusion to ‘St Thomas’, Urquhart gaining confidence with every move, Moore closing with a soaring solo coda. With the juices flowing, ‘Boogie Stop Shuffle’ was the icing on this wondrous cake, Taylor’s stop time tempo just the job, the tenor pair at avid play. Hard to top: time to stop. Ralph Moore should return… soon. He said he’d like to.