Night people

It was day and night when we moved from a quiet and deliberate Band Room to a vibrant but noisy Hippo to hear the Front and Siders Trio. I like to just listen, but I also enjoy the bawdier side of jazz. It’s more on edge and perhaps more adventurous. It’s definitely looser and more error-prone. But it’s got a life that concert venues, for all their admirable care and thought and precision, don’t have. And it’s a big part of our jazz history.

The Front and Siders are Luke Sweeting, James Luke and Mark Sutton supplemented by various ring-ins, playing standards and various originals. So, it’s a bit of everything in an environment that’s got a bit for everyone: cocktails, chatter, suasion, seduction. The band fitted with ease. These are seasoned professionals and it showed. Not showy but ever-solid and nicely spoken in accompaniment and solos and sometimes playfully at the edge. Luke’s volume was a bit low so I most noticed James and Mark. James was on double and playing with lovely discretion and solid tone, effectively holding grooves and embellishing them, and soloing with clarity and vibrancy. He was often-enough up amongst the high notes, but I particularly noticed an ease across the neck, in the so-called DMZ, high on the low strings, where strings are clumsy and notes sound less defined, but where you can form patterns and chords with high notes that you can’t do in the commonly-used areas of the neck. Mark was playing a storm. He was obviously reading and picking up a few tunes from James on the night, but once the grooves were established, his playing was sharp and sometimes devastating. Great stuff. And Luke is always great value. I was floored by a denouement bar of a quality that I’ve only heard on record: some tortuous descending line built on a symmetrical scale, diminished I guess, dropping into dissonance then out again as it wended through an octave. What advanced harmony. The sit-ins that I caught were Matt Handel and Alex Raupach. Matt particularly caught my attention with a solo on two chords that was well structured from sparse and lyrical to dense and abundant then back again.

I chatted through some of it, peered with ears through cocktails clinking and sometimes just sat back and enjoyed the ambience of seasoned players in a living venue. I guess I have to admit an occasional lapse from musical purity, because I loved it. The Front & Siders Trio is Luke Sweeting (piano), James Luke (bass) and Mark Sutton (drums). Matt Handel (tenor sax) and Alex Raupach (trumpet) sat in for occasional tunes.