Martin Taylor & Ulf Wakenius, Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival review: 'nimble sparring'
This musical odd couple came together in amiable virtuosity, writes Jim Gilchrist
Martin Taylor & Ulf Wakenius, Famous Spiegeltent, Edinburgh ★★★★
Between them, Martin Taylor and Ulf Wakenius have played with the greats – Taylor with Stephane Grappelli, Wakenius with Oscar Peterson among others. As a duo, the dapperly clad Taylor and the ultra-casual, baseball-capped Swede suggest an odd couple united in amiable virtuosity, at times duetting in blithe concordance or sparring with improvisational glee. Taylor’s bewilderingly adept fingerpicking combines melody with bass lines and chording, the Swede’s plectrum coaxes bluesy bending and darting note runs, while sly interjections might quote anyone from Edward Grieg to Deep Purple.
Familiar tunes could experience surprising encounters, as in their opener, With a Little Help from My Friends becoming a walking blues before morphing into a Norah Jones number, Wakenius introducing some funk, Taylor referencing Ellington.
Henry Mancini’s score for Two for the Road provided a gently romantic interlude, gradually taking on a gentle bossa rhythm, while Wakenius’s tribute to the late Barney Kessel, Barney Goes to Brazil, was a characteristically exuberant affair of high-speed runs and an interlude in which he attacked the strings with a water bottle, replicating the percussive twang of a Brazilian berimbau. Another Kessel number, Blues for a Playboy was a snappy affair, the players alternating increasingly intense improvisational bursts.
Wakenius dwelled lovingly on Ennio Morricone’s Once Upon a Time in America and there was further nimble sparring in Taylor’s Last Train to Hauteville, a nod to his Spirit of Django band which built up a swingy head of steam, audience woo-woo-ing on cue. The audience also finger-clicked to the gospel stomp of I Wish I Knew How It Would feel to be Free (better known as the theme tune of Barry Norman’s Film Night), with which the pair brought proceedings to satisfying closure.