Casey Greene / Dick Pearce Quintet, The Hive Music & Media Centre, Shrewsbury, 10/03/2018.

This quintet, specifically assembled for this event, was billed as a local/international group. Co-led by Shrewsbury based saxophonist Casey Greene and trumpeter Dick Pearce, the latter once of the Ronnie Scott quintet, the line up featured a cast of Midlands based musicians including pianist Tim Amann, double bassist Tom Hill and drummer Simon King. The ‘international’ aspect comes from the birthplaces of Greene, originally from Sydney, Australia and the American Hill, who hails from Los Angeles but somehow ended up in Droitwich (or ‘Detroitwich’ as he sometimes calls it).

Also a composer and educator Greene is a highly popular figure in his home town of Shrewsbury and this combined with Pearce’s credentials as a trumpeter with a national reputation ensured that tonight’s performance was officially sold out, giving promoters Shrewsbury Jazz Network their third bumper crowd of 2018 following near capacity audiences for the visits of the Jeff Williams Quintet in January and the Alison Rayner Quintet in February. It was great to see such a huge turnout again, including a number of first time visitors to the Hive, and once more the crowd served to give the gig a great atmosphere. Shrewsbury jazz audiences are attentive, knowledgeable and appreciative.

Given that this appeared to be something of a ‘one off’ collaboration I was expecting the programme to be standards based but instead the two sets were comprised of almost entirely original material with Greene, Pearce, Amann and Hill all contributing tunes to the repertoire.
This came as a very welcome surprise with some enterprising original compositions combining with some excellent playing to make for a very enjoyable evening of music making. Greene, Pearce and their colleagues had obviously taken some time in planning this evening’s performance, which was far more than just an all star jam.

Greene has previously appeared at an SJN gig at the Hive leading his Latin 5 group in a tribute to the American vibraphonist, composer and band-leader Cal Tjader with guest Paul Sawtell on vibes. He has also manned the sound desk at numerous other SJN events. Greene has also been part of the Inspector Gadjo group led by guitarist Will Barnes, and I also have fond memories of Greene’s other Latin band, Quiver, which included the multi-instrumentalist Simon King, this time on guitar.

Pearce is best known for his long association with Ronnie Scott but he has also been a key member of bands led by pianist and composer Tim Richards, notably his Great Spirit and Hextet groups. Others with whom Pearce has worked include saxophonists Don Weller and Alan Barnes and vocalist Laura Collins.

The quintet commenced their programme with the Pearce composition “Mullen It Around”,  originally written for the guitarist Jim Mullen, who apparently declined to play it – here Pearce adopted a Scottish accent “I’m not reading that!”. Musically the tune had something of the feel of a bebop standard and represented a good introduction to the instrumental voices of the band with Hill’s driving bass lines and King’s crisp drumming prompting solos from Greene on tenor, Pearce on trumpet and Amann on piano, a Roland RD300SX electric keyboard. The piece also included features for Hill on double bass and King at the drums, the latter trading fours in lively fashion with Pearce, Amman and Greene.

Another Pearce composition, “Fly On The Wall”, saw the collective confidence of the band increasing and introduced something of a Latin flavour to the music. After an introductory passage by the trio of Amman, Hill and King the horn players combined to state the theme with Pearce on trumpet and Greene switching to alto. Solos came from Pearce, who specialised on trumpet throughout the evening, Greene on alto and Amann at the piano. The two horns then dovetailed effectively on the outro with Hill briefly flourishing the bow right at the close.

Greene took up the compositional reins for the ballad “Ghost Gum”, inspired by the eucalyptus trees of his native Australia. This was a delightfully melodic piece featuring the gentle intertwining of Pearce’s trumpet and the composer’s breathy alto . Greene introduced a subtle bluesiness into his alto solo and he was followed by Pearce on trumpet and Amann at the piano, their solos underpinned by the purr of Hill’s bass and the swish of King’s brushes. Hill then soloed on double bass, combining a strong melodic sense with a huge, rounded tone.

It was over to Amann for “Musti’s Mood”, a piece written in honour of the said Musti, landlord of, and co-ordinator of the jazz programme at, The Trumpet pub in Bilston. Musti is also a drummer and percussionist who regularly performs or ‘sits in’ at the pub. Amann’s tribute was a rousing, infectious, highly rhythmic piece with a genuine Blue Note / hard bop feel and it was rapturously received by the Shrewsbury audience. With Hill and King combining to provide a propulsive rhythmic impetus Greene and Pearce then linked up on tenor and trumpet to deliver an attention grabbing theme statement before embarking on powerful individual solos, with Greene’s tenor playing particularly muscular. A lengthy – and highly impressive - bass and drum dialogue followed with King making imaginative and effective use of toms and cymbals. The composer’s own solo was little more than a cameo leading to a final statement of the theme by the two horns.

Pearce’s tune “169 Upper Richmond Road West” was written in the 1970s but still sounded remarkably contemporary and featured an extended twin horn theme statement with Greene this time featuring on alto. Subsequent solos came from Greene on alto, Pearce on trumpet and Amann at the piano.

The first set ended with Greene’s “Bindi Eye”, named for a particularly thorny piece of Australian vegetation. A suitably prickly, boppish theme was sketched by tenor and trumpet with solos coming from Greene, Amann, Pearce and Hill, all propelled by King’s rapidly brushed drums. Greene and Pearce then combined again to restate the theme and bring a lengthy, but very enjoyable, first half to a close.

But there was still time for Hill, also a successful actor and voice-over artist (he’s famously the voice of Tony the Tiger) to give a plug for Pearce’s book of jazz life anecdotes, “Dizzy Gillespie Was At My Wedding”. Advertising certainly pays, the book sold out during the interval before I was able to lay my hands on a copy!

Set two began with Pearce the author turning composer as the quintet played his composition “Retreat”. The quirky theme proved to be the launching pad for what was probably Greene’s best solo of the night as he stretched out on alto followed by the composer on trumpet and Amann at the piano before the two horns linked up once more to restate the theme.

Greene now passed the mic to Hill who introduced his tune “Waltzing Brunhilde”. Despite the jokey title this jazz waltz was a poignant dedication to Hill’s late wife Jackie, whose birthday falls on March 14th, very close in time to tonight’s performance. Hill ushered in his composition with a passage of unaccompanied bass, subsequently joined by piano and brushed drums. Greene on alto and Pearce on trumpet then stated the theme, their instruments again dovetailing in elegant fashion. Hill’s melodic bass solo formed the centre piece of the composition with further solos coming from Pearce on trumpet and Amann at the piano.

Greene’s “Blues For Stube” was also a dedication, this time to the late Australian bass player, composer and band-leader Rolf Stube who tragically died of a drug overdose. The tune itself was a true blues, featuring the composer’s smoky, bluesy tenor, his solo followed by one of Pearce’s most elegant and eloquent trumpet statements. Amann also featured as a soloist before the two horns combined to restate the theme prior to an an unexpected but highly engaging and imaginative bass and drum outro, presumably in honour of Stube.

Most of the pieces thus far had been based around familiar jazz forms but Amann’s “Timeless” introduced a different, more European, more orchestrated form of composition. Inspired by the sight of ice drifting down the River Severn “Timeless” possessed a strong narrative arc and a distinct cinematic quality. The composer’s rippling piano arpeggios evoked suitably watery images and underpinned the whole piece, providing the framework for lyrical solos from Pearce on trumpet and Greene on tenor plus Hill on bass. Hill’s melodic solo was reminiscent of both Alison Rayner, whose quintet had delighted the SJN crowd the previous month, and Eberhard Weber. Eventually Greene and Pearce converged again to restate the theme of this highly atmospheric and evocative piece.

Amann’s composition brought a welcome change of style but we were soon back in more familiar territory with Greene’s “Don’t Sit On My Shades” (careful how you say that!), a strutting, soulful, bluesy piece boasting a tenor / trumpet front line. Greene’s bold and bluesy tenor solo was followed by Pearce stretching out on trumpet, quickly followed by Amman and Hill.

The second half concluded with Amann’s “Solstice”, an old tune originally performed by his X-Tet quintet. The writing style was similar to the earlier “Timeless” with the composer’s arpeggios again forming the bedrock of the piece. The purity of tone on Greene’s alto solo was reminiscent of Paul Desmond and the music became positively anthemic as Pearce’s trumpet soared, followed by a piano solo from the composer. Again this more European style of writing added a welcome variety to the quintet’s repertoire.

The deserved encore represented the only standard of the set and was a swinging romp through the Duke Pearson tune “Janine” with solos from Greene on tenor, Pearce on trumpet and Amann on piano plus a series of thrilling exchanges between Hill and King, these unobtrusively underscored by Amann’s piano vamp.

These two lengthy, value for money sets were very much appreciated by the Shrewsbury audience who gave these local / international heroes a great reception. Greene announced that the quintet hope to record these tunes at some point in the future and it would be good to hear this material again on disc. It is also anticipated that King will also contribute compositions to any recording.

To paraphrase SJN’s Mike Wright who hosted the evening these were fresh, new compositions written with an awareness of jazz history. It was a combination that that seemed to satisfy everybody in the capacity crowd.

 

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