A NORWEGIAN, a Scotsman and an Italian walk into a bar, and we'll just leave that intro there before it descends into a very bad pun indeed.
Especially since this gig was about serious jazz – a showcase of molten virtuosity, which started out wit
h Arild Andersen coaxing whale noises from his effects pedals-embellished double bass, before going through a phase in the middle in which Paolo Vinaccia scratched his drum kit in such a way that it sounded like rats were running over it, and ended with all kinds of frenzied sax soloing from Tommy Smith.
This Glasgow Jazz Festival show was a second Scottish date in six months for the European trio – led by Andersen, who has played with jazz greats from Jan Garbarek to Pat Metheny over the past 40 years – and the reception was rapturous.
It would have been nice to have heard more of the kind of reserved use of form and melody embraced in graceful pre-encore number Dreamhorse alongside the indulgent, free-form workouts which are their speciality.
But the trio's musicianship and responsiveness to each other as players was beyond reproach – as best exemplified by the opening suite, Independency.
Their remarkable dynamic may lie in their contrasts. They couldn't look more different: Andersen with his big shock of silver hair, Smith in pressed trousers and shiny shoes and Vinaccia – a large chap with long black locks and a goatee who looks like he should be drumming for a hard-core band – sporting a comedy T-shirt bearing the slogan "Almost Musician". Whoever said jazz doesn't have a sense of humour?
