Christian Garrick / David Gordon

“Paper Jam”

(Flying Blue Whale Records FLY14)

This is the first recording by the long running duo featuring violinist Christian Garrick and pianist David Gordon. The pair first met in 1996 and have worked frequently together in various ensembles including the Anglo-Finnish group Tango Alakulo and the band Butterfly’s Wing featuring vocalist Jacqui Dankworth. They have also performed with bands led by Jacqui’s father, the late saxophonist and composer Sir John Dankworth.

Christian Garrick is arguably the UK’s foremost jazz violinist, a highly versatile musician capable of playing in a variety of jazz styles, both acoustic and electric. Garrick covers territory ranging from the Hot Club stylings of Stephane Grappelli to the wigged out fusioneering of Jean Luc Ponty – and all points in between, with influences ranging from jazz, folk, pop and classical music. He has appeared frequently on the Jazzmann web pages leading his own groups and as a sideman with guitarist John Etheridge’s gypsy jazz ensemble Sweet Chorus and with bassist Alec Dankworth’s Spanish Accents group. He has also worked with Etheridge in a duo format, the pair releasing the “Men On Wire” album in 2010. Garrick is currently a key member of the groups Budapest Café Orchestra and Spirit of Stephane.

David Gordon, who plays keyboards with Garrick’s electro-acoustic quartet is a similarly broad minded musician. He also leads his own piano trio, a group that reflects his thorough knowledge of jazz and world music styles, plays accordion with the tango group Zum, and is an acclaimed classical harpsichordist. In 2015 Gordon’s trio featuring bassist Jonty Fisher and drummer Paul Cavaciuti released the album “Alexander Scriabin’s Ragtime Band”, an eclectic and innovative jazz take on the music of the Russian born composer. Gordon also plays harpsichord with the group Respectable Groove,  a kind of cross between an early music ensemble and a jazz group. 

The music of the Garrick/Gordon duo is an eclectic mix that mirrors their broad range of influences. In September 2016 I was fortunate enough to witness the pair give a live performance at the Wall2Wall Jazz Festival in Abergavenny and many of the pieces that were played there are featured on this album which was recorded at around the same time and appears on Garrick’s own Flying Blue Whale record label. The violinist has always had an ear for a good tune, regardless of its origins or genre, and the music of both the Etheridge and Gordon duos reflects this with both units drawing on a rich well of tradition spanning the various musical boundaries. 

They commence with a lively segue of “Broadway” and “Afternoon In Paris”, the latter written by pianist John Lewis of the Modern Jazz Quartet. Both Gordon and Garrick possess the technical prowess necessary to work within the exposed format of a duo and both exhibit a stunning virtuosity here with Garrick deploying both arco and pizzicato techniques while Gordon displays an equally remarkable facility at the piano, both as soloist and accompanist. But this is more than a display of mere technical skill, there’s a sense of fun and adventure about the duo’s playing with Dennis Harrison’s evocative liner notes likening their musical bravado to that of a gunslinger or a prize fighter.

The pair’s extensive knowledge of global music styles finds voice in a charming arrangement of “Msunduza”, a joyous slice of township jazz written by Abdullah Ibrahim in the days when the South African born pianist and composer was still known as Dollar Brand. Garrick again makes effective use of pizzicato techniques as well as deploying the bow vivaciously.

The pair’s love of classical music is expressed by their inclusion of Sir William Walton’s “Touch Her Soft Lips And Part” , the performance altogether more ‘serious’ in approach and imbued with a lyrical but sombre beauty.

A spirited arrangement of Chucho Valdez’s “Mambo Influenciado” finds the duo adding a dash of English folk to the Afro-Cuban cadences. Gordon, whose trio explored the music of South and Central America on the 2013 album “Speaks Latin”, demonstrates his mastery of the styles and rhythms of the region as Garrick again gravitates between arco and pizzicato techniques.

The duo’s interpretation of George Shearing’s “Conception” returns them to the conventional jazz repertoire in an arrangement that finds the pair batting ideas back and forth in a dazzling and vivacious set of musical exchanges. Their joie de vivre and spirit of musical adventure is joyously evident throughout.

“Samba Em Preludio”, written by Bayden Powell, re-locates the duo to Brazil to explore the more reflective and melancholy side of Latin American music.

Garrick and Gordon positively relish the technical challenges of the late John Taylor’s complex but joyously invigorating “Coffee Time” with Gordon’s fiendishly busy rhythmic figures fuelling the flights of Garrick’s soaring violin.

The poignant folk melodies of Jay Ungar’s hauntingly beautiful “ The Ashokan Farewell” then capture the duo at their most emotionally direct.

Bud Powell’s “Celia” brings the music back into the conventional jazz arena once more, the duo exploring the architecture of the tune in a spirit of joy and adventure and, despite the sparseness of the instrumentation, a convincing sense of swing.

Gordon’s “English Isobars” is the only original composition on the album, but it’s also the lengthiest. This seven minute voyage of discovery was one of the set highlights at Abergavenny and is a richly melodic piece with a strong narrative arc that slowly opens like a flower, the music a beguiling mix of jazz, folk and chamber music influences.

The album concludes with a playful version of the Carpenters pop hit “Close To You” with Garrick once more alternating between pizzicato and arco techniques.

Having seen the Garrick and Gordon duo in concert it’s good to see their music being documented on disc at last. “Paper Jam” is a good souvenir for anybody who has seen the pair performing live, an environment that is very much their natural habitat. However this engaging series of musical conversations is a convincing piece of work in its own right. These dialogues cover an impressive musical and emotional range, embracing a wide variety of moods and musical styles while retaining a genuine sense of élan and joie de vivre.

It’s immediately apparent that Garrick and Gordon have established a genuine rapport, and this, allied to the immense technical skill on display, ensures that these musical exchanges are consistently full of interest. There’s always something exciting going on despite the apparent limitations of the instrumentation. Then there’s the tunes themselves,  highly varied in terms of musical style but all ripe for exploration as Garrick and Gordon pick and mix and make each piece very much their own. Once again it’s that shared eye for a “good tune”.

 

 

 

 

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