Eddie Gripper / Alex Clarke Quartet, Black Mountain Jazz, Melville Centre, Abergavenny, 16/02/2025.

Eddie Gripper – piano, Alex Clarke – alto & tenor saxophones, Nick Kacal – double bass, Patrick Barrett-Donlon – drums

This quartet, co-led by pianist Eddie Gripper and saxophonist Alex Clarke is currently undertaking a UK national tour.

Tonight’s event represented something of a ‘homecoming’ as it brought Gripper and Clarke back to the place where their musical partnership began. It was in January 2023 that drummer Alex Goodyear, then the leader of the Black Mountain Jazz Club house band the BMJ Collective, first persuaded Clarke to get together with Cardiff based saxophonist Dan Newberry to play a gig with the Collective, at that time comprised of Goodyear, Gripper and bassist Clem Saynor at the Melville Centre. Goodyear is still involved with Gripper and Clarke and some of the dates on the current tour will feature him behind the kit. The 2023 was a thoroughly enjoyable and hugely successful performance and is reviewed here;
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/the-bmj-collective-with-alex-clarke-and-dan-newberry-black-mountain-jazz-melville-centre-abergavenny-25-01-2023

The Abergavenny performance was so successful that the newly formed quintet also played a number of other gigs elsewhere.

United by a shared love of the jazz tradition saxophonist Clarke and pianist Gripper established a particularly strong rapport and have continued to work together, culminating in this current tour and a planned album recording.

It was a welcome return to Abergavenny and BMJ for both the co-leaders. Gripper is a frequent visitor to BMJ both as a prolific sideman and as the leader of his own groups, notably his trio with which he released his exceptional debut album “Home” later in 2023. This was a remarkably assured and mature recording that demonstrated his considerable abilities as both a pianist and a composer. The album also featured bassist Ursula Harrison, the 2024 BBC Young Jazz Musician of the Year, and the young American drummer Isaac Zuckerman. My review of the “Home” album can be found here;
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/eddie-gripper-home

Following Zuckerman’s return to the US his place at the drum stool has been taken by Patrick Barrett-Donlon, who brought his own quartet to BMJ in January 2025 to play the themed show “Leading From The Back”, a programme of well known jazz compositions written by drummers and bass players. Review here;

Alex Clarke first came to my attention in 2022 when she appeared at that year’s Brecon Jazz Festival as a guest soloist with two different acts, the Jane Williams Band and The Numbers Racket. She is also an acclaimed educator and prior to these two live performances had presented a workshop for young jazz musicians elsewhere in the town.  My account of Clarke’s two Brecon appearances can be found as part of my Festival coverage here;
https://www.thejazzmann.com/features/article/brecon-jazz-festival-family-jazz-dance-day-brecon-county-showground-brecon-07-08-2022

Meanwhile guest contributor Trevor Bannister enjoyed a performance by a Clarke quartet featuring drummer Clark Tracey,  bassist Dave Green and pianist Rob Barron at the Progress Theatre in Reading in June 2023. His account can be found here;
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/alex-clarke-quartet-jazz-at-progress-progress-theatre-reading-berkshire-02-06-2023

I was to catch up with a version of the Clarke quartet featuring Tracey, pianist Dave Newton and bassist James Owston in February 2024. Review here;
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/alex-clarke-quartet-kidderminster-jazz-club-st-ambrose-parish-centre-kidderminster-worcs-05-04-2024

Clarke’s debut album “Mirage” was released in 2018 and featured pianist Tom Kincaid, bassist Ed Harrison and drummer Eryl Roberts.  The recording featured  Clarke’s arrangements of jazz standards plus lesser known tunes by Tubby Hayes, Harold Arlen and others.  In 2019 she also appeared on the album “Songs from the Jazz Country” by the TJ Johnson Band.

Clarke is an important member of the band led by trumpeter Chris Hodgkins that released the album “A Salute To Humphrey Lyttelton”.in 2022 She appears on tenor sax and clarinet and is also featured as an arranger. A review of this recording can be found as part of a Jazzmann feature about Hodgkins here;
https://www.thejazzmann.com/features/article/chris-hodgkins-festooned-with-trumpets-a-salute-to-humphrey-lyttelton-vic-parker-at-the-quebec-hotel

But it was with her second album “Only A Year” that Clarke’s solo career really took off, the presence of big names like Clark Tracey, pianist Dave Newton and Dave Green causing both the critics and the jazz public to sit up and pay attention. As a result Clarke’s quartet has become an increasingly popular attraction on the UK jazz circuit.
Review here;
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/alex-clarke-quartet-only-a-year

As a saxophonist Clarke has named her main influences as being Scott Hamilton and Lester Young on tenor and Phil Woods, Cannonball Adderley, Vincent Herring and Kenny Garrett on alto, but there are also many more..For such a young musician her approach is uncharacteristically mainstream, but Clarke has a deep and uncompromising love for this style of jazz and has no desire to become a slave to musical fashion.

These are qualities that also apply to Gripper, the “Home” album may have a contemporary sound but the pianist also loves to play standards and has an impressively thorough knowledge of the classic jazz repertoire. He has recently started to write in a broadly standards type style and two of the fruits of these endeavours were included in tonight’s programme.

The performance began with a version of the celebrated Dave Brubeck composition “In Your Own Sweet Way”.  This was introduced in the piano trio format with Clarke subsequently joining on alto sax to state the main melodic theme and take the first solo, her playing fluent and eloquent. Gripper followed at the venue’s upright acoustic piano, this exceptional young pianist exhibiting similar qualities, his playing consistently assured and imaginative. Nick Kacal, the current BMJ Collective bassist was then featured on double bass. A favourite with Abergavenny jazz audiences he is handling the bass duties on the Welsh and West Country dates of the ongoing tour and has already established a good rapport with Barrett-Donlon and the rest of the quartet. Clarke’s return signalled a series of exchanges between sax, piano and Barrett-Donlon’s brushed drums. An excellent start.

The co-leaders shared announcing duties with Gripper introducing his own composition “Falling Down”, one of his older tunes written in the style of a standard that wasn’t chosen for “Home” but which is particularly suitable for this current quartet. Clarke continued on alto sax before handing over to Gripper for an expansive piano solo, much of it played with the right hand only. Clarke then returned to solo on alto.

Clarke announced the next piece, “Two Five One”, written by Paul Nadzela, baritone saxophonist with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and named for a common jazz chord progression. This was an upbeat piece with a strong bebop flavour, this reflected in a complex bebop style ‘head’ that provided the springboard for solos from Clarke and Gripper, these fuelled by Kacal’s propulsive bass lines and Barrett-Donlon’s crisp drumming. The latter also enjoyed a sparky and colourful drum feature.

Gripper called the ballad “My One And Only Love”, which saw Clarke moving to tenor sax. A saxophone trio intro featuring Barrett-Donlon on brushed drums was followed by lyrical solos from Clarke on tenor and Gripper at the piano followed by a melodic excursion from Kacal at the bass. Clarke retuned with a reprise of the theme, followed by a closing tenor sax cadenza underscored by bowed bass and brushed drums.

The first half concluded with the quartet upping the tempo once more on a lively “C Jam Blues”, ushered in by double bass and brushed drums. The simple but arresting blues ‘head’ was then the jumping off point for solos from Clarke on alto, Gripper at the piano and finally Kacal at the bass, with Barrett-Donlon providing brushed drum commentary and punctuation. This was followed by a series of exchanges between Clarke and Barrett-Donlon, the drummer starting with brushes before moving on to sticks as the dialogue became more animated. This concluded an excellent first half that was very well received by a pleasingly sizeable audience.

Set two commenced with a Clarke arrangement of the standard “Nobody Else But Me”, with the saxophonist stating the theme on alto and taking the first solo. Gripper followed at the piano, with Barrett-Donlon again moving from brushes to sticks as the momentum of the music increased.

Gripper’s second original of the evening was “Wee Ed”, named for a character that Gripper had encountered in a Belfast bar when the pianist was playing a residency in the city. Written in the style of a jazz standard but with a stop-start rhythm intended to convey the title character’s inebriated state this was an engaging piece that incorporated expansive solos from the composer at the piano and Clarke on tenor. It’s an item that is likely to be recorded when the quartet eventually visits the studio.

This set’s ballad was “Someone To Watch Over Me”, a song chosen by Gripper and performed in the piano trio format as Clarke temporarily left the stage.  Gripper’s arrangement was variously influenced by recordings of the tune by Chick Corea and Art Tatum and commenced with an unaccompanied piano intro. Following the introduction of double bass and brushed drums Gripper’s playing combined an underlying lyricism with more extrovert stylistic flourishes. The performance also included a melodic double bass solo from the excellent Kacal.

Clarke returned to announce “Toy” a composition by saxophonist Clifford Jordan that was recorded by Cannonball Adderley on Adderley’s 1962 album “Know What I Mean?”. Introduced in piano trio mode and with Barrett-Donlon wielding sticks this was a more forceful item with some urgent, Adderley-esque alto soloing from Clarke on alto. She was followed by Gripper at the piano and then by Barrett-Donlon at the drums. Invigorating stuff.

To close the second set the quartet honoured another of Clarke’s alto sax heroes, Kenny Garrett, with a performance of Garrett’s composition “Wayne’s Thang”, itself a tribute to Wayne Shorter. This was the second time I’d heard this piece in a matter of days, the young Birmingham jazz-funk quintet Impossible Conversations having played a very different funked up version of the tune at a Music Spoken Here event at The Marr’s Bar in Worcester the previous Thursday. Tonight’s more straight ahead jazz arrangement was introduced by the combination of bass and drums, with Clarke then emerging to state the theme on alto and to take the first solo, stretching out in the style of Garrett himself. Gripper followed at the piano, teasing the audience with a series of intervallic gaps, as did Barrett-Donlon with his closing drum solo.

The ecstatic audience reaction ensured that no prompting was needed for the quartet to play a deserved encore. Clarke called the ballad “Like Someone in Love”, promising the audience that she and Gripper would “send you serenely on your way home”. They certainly delivered on this pledge with a beautiful duo performance that combined the soft, breathy sounds of tenor sax with luminous and lyrical acoustic piano.

This was a classy performance from a band co-led by two much loved musicians and featuring two more players who are established favourites with the BMJ audience. In general the predictability of the head-solos-head format was transcended by the quality of the playing and it was good to see each set punctuated by the inclusion of a Gripper original. Let’s hope that the quartet is able to document its music on disc at some point in the future.

Details of future gigs can be found on the websites of the co-leaders;

http://www.edgripper.wordpress.com

http://www.alexclarkejazz.co.uk

 

 

blog comments powered by Disqus