Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival review: Arild Andersen & Tommy Smith, St Bride’s Centre

Even in the absence of drummer Thomas Strønen, Arild Andresen and Tommy Smith still left their audience more than satisfied with a mightily impressive duo performance, writes Jim Gilchrist

Arild Andersen & Tommy Smith, St Bride’s Centre ****

Whatever disappointment we felt at revered Norwegian bassist Arild Andersen’s formidable trio with Tommy Smith and Thomas Strønen being reduced to a sax-bass duo owing to the drummer being stranded elsewhere by an airline glitch, we were treated instead to an object lesson in musical interplay between saxophonist and double-bassist as they renewed their long-time acquaintance with verve.

The opening Little Song set the standard, Andersen’s resonantly deep-voiced bass deliberations answered by Smith’s big-toned sax, establishing lyrical call-and-response sequences throughout the folk-like melody, while in the subsequent Landlooper a springy bass groove prompted a catchy, faintly rockabilly-ish excursion, double bass conducting animated conversations with itself or with sax (Andersen, for this concert, eschewing the electronic real-time looping he often deploys).

Arild Andersen with Thomas Stronen and Tommy Smith

Such powerfully animated exchanges characterised the set, along with tight, speedy unison runs. There was also, though, the shadowy ballad territory of Bygone, Andersen stooped intently over his instrument, escorting the wistful theme with inventive elegance, while Smith’s glowing tenor treated Burt Bacharach’s Alfie with a muscular tenderness, the tune ushered off for a gentle bass peregrination.

Smith opened the second half with the hauntingly mournful tones of his shakuhachi flute before a rumble of bass brought in further high-tension exchanges and racy bass runs in Science and Mira.

There was a keen, Middle-Eastern querulousness to Smith’s Yemeni folk song which worked up quite a groove, while, in contrast, his plangently teased out Duke Ellington’s Prelude to a Kiss, allowing it to hang lingeringly in the air. Eventually staccato bass slapping and terse sax brought in an encore of Blussy, leaving us, if perhaps pondering the absent third man, more than satisfied with a mightily impressive duo performance.