Gig review: Arild Andersen, Paolo Vinaccia, Tommy Smith

Published on Thursday 4 December 2008 19:59

ARILD ANDERSEN, PAOLO VINACCIA, TOMMY SMITH THE LOT, EDINBURGH

THIS stellar European trio served up a memorable performance for a full house. The shimmering bass harmonics that open Arild Andersen's Independency launched a gripping and unbroken performance of the four-part suite that ebbed and flowed in compelling fashion.

If the concert lacked the final edge of one-off adrenaline-pumping energy that fuelled Andersen and Smith's Edinburgh Jazz Festival performance with deputising drummer Alyn Cosker at The Hub back in August, the level of musical engagement, responsive interaction and subtly co-ordinated dynamics never faltered.

It was a sustained display of high-level musicianship in which Andersen took the acoustic bass (plus some additional electronics) into territory that remains inaccessible to most players, while Smith demonstrated once again that he is a saxophonist of world-class standing in any company. His flow of musical invention combined with a rich, lustrous sonority on tenor saxophone to dramatic effect. Vinaccia's probing drumming played a full part in the three-way musical conversation.

They opened the second set with a determined but unsuccessful attempt to find the music for a new tune by Smith with a distinctly Scottish melodic feel that they were playing for the first time – but then played it anyway.

Duke Ellington's Prelude to a Kiss nodded to the standard jazz repertoire, the fierce Outhouse allowed them to pump up both the tempo and the heat, and Andersen's Dreamhorse provided a limpid, hauntingly beautiful encore.

They play Glasgow RSAMD tomorrow and Greyfriars Parish Church, Lanark, on Sunday.