SJM September 2020
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September 2020 A brand-new podcast about Brighton’s vibrant jazz scene Listen now on any podcast app or visit brightonjazzsafari.com 4 Simon Spillett: 16 Big Band Scene RIP Peter King 18 Live Stream Reviews 7 Jazz News 8 A Tribute to Gerry Higgins 22 Album Reviews 11 Jazz Essentials 33 Listings 12 Interview: Sultan Stevenson 36 Pete Recommends... Click on the blue SJM logo at the bottom of Cover: Sultan Stevenson by Lisa Wormsley each page to return This Page: Harry Pope performing with Jackson Mathod by Lisa Wormsley to the contents page. Simon Spillett Peter King, Rest In Peace In honour of saxophonist Peter one of the finest musicians Great King, who passed away on 23rd Britain has ever produced - in any August, we print an appreciation of idiom. him written last year. I first heard Peter play in, I guess, the very late 1980s. BBC-2 screened At the risk of prompting hours of a concert by Stan Tracey's big band debate, for my money the man in the from the Bath festival. Seated in a foreground of this photograph is saxophone section also including undoubtedly 'The Greatest Alto Tony Coe and Art Themen, the forty- Saxophonist (currently) in Jazz'. something Peter was Period. You may disagree, as indeed undemonstrative, his alto thrust he himself might do too. After all, his squarely out front, his eyes rarely world-class musical gifts go hand-in- showing any sort of reaction to his hand with a persona at once self- fellow players. But it was his own effacing and naturally modest. Don't solo feature that grabbed my let him tell you different though: he's teenaged ears, a brooding, sardonic the real deal and always has been. yet utterly lyrical account of Duke No argument. Ellington's In A Sentimental Mood, He is, of course, Peter King, a which, even back then as a gawky cornerstone of the UK jazz scene for kid, brought a lump to my throat. It sixty years and, again in my opinion, wasn't just the notes though - 4 SJM September 2020 glorious though they were - it was And when he played! The sound something else, the magic - perfectly matched across the alto's indefinable sound of a personality entire range - the lines that curled come alive in musical form. through the chords beneath them I knew nothing about Peter at all and which would suddenly spiral at this point but this one solo had away to a held, heart-wrenching given a little window into what made choice of note, the phrasing that sat him tick: the precise mind, the ability nano-second perfect at any tempo. to harness emotions and not get all Who could possibly better this? 'Shirley Bassey' about it, maybe even After that night, I hunted down the melancholy of what I later as much PK on record as I could, learned had been a horrendously quickly learning that, like other British tough life. The camera cut in close as jazzmen of his generation, many of he played, so close as to catch his his finest moments were scattered ravaged acne-scarred skin. You could throughout albums led by others. sense that beneath the surface calm, There was an epic 'Come Sunday' he'd been through it all. with Stan Tracey, tracks with Julian It wasn't until the mid-1990s Joseph, even a tango tempo solo with that I heard him live, again as one of Tony Crombie and, to my ears the the string of high-calibre guests most moving of all, an uncredited who'd appear at The Cross Keys in cameo on Maynard Ferguson's The Marlow. I remember watching him Summer Knows. Spine-tingling, it still arrive, clad all in black, his raises the hairs on my neck. voluminous overcoat almost trailing The first time I got to share a to the ground. Before the gig began stage with Peter was in 2001. I'd he sat at a small table, alone, joined the band of a vainglorious smoking and sipping occasionally at amatuer drummer who thought a black coffee. His alto laid before himself the UK's equivalent to Buddy him, its silver neck twisted sideways Rich. He'd got the lot: the huge white to point at the ceiling. drum kit, the towel on the floor tom, Unlike the other gigs I'd been to the patter at the mic, everything, in at the Keys there wasn't the usual bit short, but the genius of his of casual banter between punters inspiration. Peter was our guest and and performer. Peter sat on his own, as I stood beside him in this unlikely looking deep in thought. Instinctively, setting his gifts were even more nobody approached him. And yet, I profoundly apparent. couldn't take my eyes off him. If I'd To be honest, I remember very known the word at the time I'd have little of the music we played together called this 'gravitas'. The only thing that night - I was painfully raw and ill I'd ever seen like this before - albeit prepared - but two things stand out. removed and fictional - was Dexter One was Peter's stop-you-in-your- Gordon in the movie 'Round Midnight. tracks solo version of Lush Life; the As much mythic being as musician. other is a non-musical memory. The sense that here was something - Seated in the poorly lit side room of someone - truly special. the venue Peter was having difficulty SJM September 2020 5 myself about. The last time I saw him was just such a night. It was a Friday afternoon when I got the call. Peter had a gig in South East London and wasn't feeling up to it. Would I cover? I headed down through the turgid Friday evening traffic only to find Peter had arrived after all. The rhythm section started off the evening and Peter and I sat almost silently together in the club's kitchen, our makeshift Green Room. He was in great discomfort and wasn't sure he'd be able to make the whole set. reading a food menu. He asked me if Could I come on if he wanted a I could tell him what was on offer breather? and so there I was, seated beside my But, up on the stand, he came idol...'there's a blackcurrant alive, that singing tone and those cheesecake, a sticky toffee pudding, daredevil improvised lines all the apple pie...'. Bizarre but all part of a more remarkable coming from a man memorable night. so clearly unwell. For most of the Years later, Peter and I played night I sat alone in the kitchen, together in other, far more conducive, listening rather than watching. And circumstances. He guested with my when he closed with what was the quartet at venues from Gillingham to fastest version I'd ever heard of Just Southend, we both appeared One Of Those Things it was like together on the same bill at Marlow hearing a 21 year old in the adjacent Jazz Club (how's that for full-circle?) room rather than the aged, pained and he was in the sax section of the figure I'd been sitting next toa big band I fronted at the Brecon Jazz couple of hours earlier. But that's Festival in 2009. Every time he Peter for you. delivered pure musical magic. At 21 he was already close to I can't claim to have got to know perfect. In his late seventies he's Peter well but the times we've spent perfection and then some. together have been consistently Like I said 'world's greatest'. illuminating. Performance insights and anecdotes always come hand-in- Another part of our jazz hand with ever increasing health landscape has changed forever. worries. Indeed, over the past few Farewell to Peter King. Master years Peter has pulled out of a few saxophonist, world class improviser, a gigs we've been booked on, beset by man for whom life was rarely easy a catalogue of medical misfortunes. but who enriched the lives of Sometimes, I've been HIS dep, countless others through his musical something I really do have to pinch gift. Rest in Peace. 6 SJM September 2020 Jazz News New Generation Jazz Cinematic Live The Brunswick New Generation Jazz launched their new Hove pub and music venue The Brunswick series of live recordings with trumpeter have launched a Sunday lunchtime live Jackson Mathod (above) on Thursday 27th session hosted by guitarist Paul Richards August. (pictured). The first pilot performance was Later streams will include Yadasofi, Sultan on Sunday 30th August. Performances are Stevenson, SUDO and Mark Kavuma’s outside in the garden and booking via The Banger Factory Octet. The performances Brunswick is recommended. will be available via their website and Facebook page. Picnic In The Park New Generation Jazz Live Weekender Jazz musicians from the Brighton area Brighton’s New Generation Jazz and Jazz recently gathered outdoors in St. Ann’s South have joined forces to host a live Well Gardens, with many performing for weekender with four bands from the South the first time since coronavirus restrictions Coast performing a 40 minute set of were lifted. original material, filmed at The Ropetackle Saturday 22nd August saw performers that in Shoreham. Thursday 3rd September sees included Sam Carelse & Jason Henson with Barnacles perform. Friday 4th will be guests, plus Don Benjamin’s band Battuta’s vocalist Abi Flynn, Saturday 5th will be Return (pictured above). Howes3 (pictured above) with Mark Edwards’ Cloggz performing on Sunday 6th.