Review: Colin Steele /Brian Kellock, Jazz Bar

Published on 09/08/2012 13:31

Two Scottish jazz players at the top of their game, pianist Brian Kellock and trumpeter Colin Steele launch themselves into the Ray Noble number The Touch of Your Lips to open a hugely enjoyable hour of sparking and sparring, Steele’s warm trumpet tone a nice contrast with Kellock’s muscular careening across the keyboard.

****

The duo format focuses total attention on the two players and their interaction, the two of them sauntering along, as in Chet Baker’s But Not for Me (which Kellock dedicated to Sir Chris Hoy’s latest Olympic triumph), pelting phrases at each other in an energetic hijacking of the old Rodgers and Hart chestnut Falling in Love With Love or drifting in a languid ballad, trumpet murmuring soulfully as Kellock unhurriedly picks out his notes.

And it was the slower-paced material which provided some of the most satisfying moments: Steele’s plaintive spelling out of Burt Bacharach’s Alfie over Kellock’s gentle chiming; or Kellock generating sheer starlight in Autumn in New York.

Not that they wasted any time when they felt like it, with the catchy hook of Charlie Parker’s My Little Suede Shoes given a boisterous Kellock lead-in, while their closing number saw both letting rip, with some exuberant blowing from Steele in response the pianist’s dazzling cascades.

Jim Gilchrist

Until 11 August. Tomorrow 8:30pm.