Unfortunately, from my point of view the 2nd part of my brave Saturday picks at the Cheltenham Jazz festival was not as easy to digest as " Food" earlier.
When selecting this gig I allowed my admiration of Stewart Lee to overcome any fears I had of that most musical challenging word " improvised". I am always willing to try most things once and certainly couldn't fault the virtuosity provided by Evan Parker and his 7 musicians. But,
the product of these talented musicians wasn't to my liking. It started reasonably promisingly with trumpeter Peter Evans/ bass player Percy Pusglove and drummer Andrew Bain combining well and producing music both beautiful and horrible within a few beats of each other.
The balance between music and and strenuous effort was confirmed with Evan Parker and drummer Mark Sanders but I did find the final first half piece with a pianist , cellist Okkyung Lee and bass player John Edwards too frenetic and chaotic for my liking. On the plus side it did finally drive out 2 moaning gits in the front row who did nothing but loudly complain about each piece.
Obviously, this type of show does suit everyone ( although to be fair) it was clearly marked in the brochure what to expect and there were plenty more spare seats in the second half. Stewart Lee bounced back to announce this was the best concert of the festival before providing the 1st laugh of the evening by announcing his plan to change the billing in the future until his Freehouse pushed Jamie Cullum down the listings. He then stated the musicians would change combinations and proceeded to deliver three different sets which I found increasingly difficult to listen to. The repetitive sight of players trying to murder their instruments by blowing, plucking, scrapping and bashing them as hard as possible I ultimately found depressing and annoying.
For me the best part of this half was the persistent rain causing an impromptu appearance from a steward to leave a bucket to catch some unwelcome raindrops leading to the true embodiment of improvised jazz, with Evan Parker producing a series of bleeps in time to the rhythm beat of the rain which was soon followed by Peter Evans.
This was as good as it got for me although I did learn that free or improvised jazz is not for me. On the plus side though the Playhouse Theatre is a lovely old venue which despite a dodgy roof is worth returning to.
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