Gwilym Simcock / Mike Walker Duo, All Saints Church, Hereford, 28 /07/ 2015
( part of the Three Choirs Festival).

My second event at the 300th Three Choirs Festival found me returning to All Saints Church for this intimate duo performance by pianist Gwilym Simcock and guitarist Mike Walker, both regular presences on the Jazzmann website. These days the pair are probably best known as the British half of the Anglo-American “supergroup” The Impossible Gentlemen alongside bassist Steve Rodby and drummer Adam Nussbaum, a band that was initially conceived by Walker as a one off collaboration but which has since acquired a life of its own with a busy touring schedule and with two highly successful albums under its collective belt.

The Impossible Gentlemen subverts the notion of the usual Anglo-American jazz alliance in that the two Brits are actually the creative heart of the band and compose the majority of its material, initially separately but more recently as a writing team. The experience of getting together to compose material for the Gentlemen has subsequently led to the idea of Simcock and Walker as a musical entity in their own right, this Three Choirs event being their first public duo performance prior to further appearances at Zeffirelli’s in Ambleside and at Manchester Jazz Festival.

Away from The Impossible Gentlemen both musicians have successful solo careers with Simcock particularly prolific both as a bandleader, a solo performer and as a collaborator with other musicians. He has recorded in a wide variety of musical formats including a superb duo album with bassist Yuri Golubev for the prestigious German record label ACT. Simcock’s association with the Munich based company has also helped to gain him something of a following in mainland Europe. 

As befits a musician at the Three Choirs Festival Simcock has a foot in both the jazz and classical fraternities. Classically trained at the Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester his versatility was a factor in him being chosen as a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist, the first jazz performer to hold the post although there have subsequently been several more.

He is also no stranger to the Three Choirs Festival, I recall seeing him perform with the group Acoustic Triangle, founded by double bassist Malcolm Creese, at a late night concert in Worcester Cathedral at the 2008 Festival. The core jazz trio were supplemented by the Sacconi String Quartet in a performance that utilised the architecture and acoustics of the Cathedral with musicians being placed at strategic points all around the building. The results were magical and unique and more than justified the “3 Dimensions” appellation granted to the album of the time and the subsequent tour of sacred spaces of which the Worcester date formed a part.

Tonight’s performance in the smaller sacred space of All Saints Church was perhaps more modest and intimate than the Acoustic Triangle concert but it also contained elements of both jazz and classical music. The main concert of the evening had been a performance of Bach’s “St. Matthew Passion” at Hereford Cathedral and part of the remit for this late night performance by Simcock and Walker was for the duo to in some way complement the earlier event.

I have to say that for me it’s a real privilege to see musicians of the calibre of Simcock and Walker appearing so close to my home town of Leominster, whose Priory Church of St. Peter and St. Paul is also a Festival venue with a series of daytime classical concerts. It’s just twelve miles from Leominster to Hereford, a nice change from the fifty or so I usually have to travel to jazz events in larger centres such as Birmingham or Cardiff. So I wasn’t too disgruntled when tonight’s event started a little later than planned due to the overrunning of the Passion at the Cathedral.

Once everyone was seated it was clear that Simcock and Walker had attracted a larger crowd than the (very good) Juice Vocal Ensemble the previous evening, an indication perhaps of the duo’s considerable reputation and cross genre appeal. They began quietly with the sound of Walker’s scratchy guitar and Simcock’s interior piano scrapings but soon glimpses of piano melody began to emerge and the two players began to coalesce prior to individual solos that demonstrated Walker’s fluency and Simcock’s melodic lyricism. Following another brief bout of under the lid activity Walker resurfaced with a gorgeously melodic solo and he was followed by a sparklingly joyous passage from Simcock. Handling the bulk of the announcements the pianist informed us that the lengthy but absorbing opening segue had included excerpts from both the “St. Matthew Passion” and the jazz standard “Autumn Leaves”.

Having seemingly discharged their Bach obligation fairly on the duo moved on to one of Simcock’s tunes, “Barber Blues”, a highly popular piece from the repertoire of The Impossible Gentlemen. The tune has its origins in classical music and one of the Samuel Barber “Excursions” that Simcock played as a child. Simcock describes the Barber piece as having “a very rhythmic left hand ostinato and a forceful angular melody” and he subsequently applied these qualities to his own sixteen bar blues. With its fiercely rhythmic left hand patterns and contrapuntal melodies it’s a robust and arresting piece and it captivated the audience here and set many a head nodding and foot tapping. Walker contributed a lithe, slippery guitar solo followed by a rollicking piano solo from Simcock himself. The abrupt, sudden ending clearly amused the players and caught many audience members on the hop.

The duo now turned to the jazz standards repertoire as a lyrical passage of solo piano introduced “My Foolish Heart” . This was a delightfully melodic rendition with Walker adopting a warm Pat Metheny like tone on his solo while mouthing along to the tune.

Walker’s own composition “Clockmaker” is an enduringly popular item in the Impossible Gentlemen repertoire and appeared on their 2011 début album. The piece has also been played by the Printmakers group (featuring Walker, pianist Nikki Iles, vocalist Norma Winstone and others) and in a big band arrangement by saxophonist Stan Sulzmann and his Neon Orchestra. Such is the adaptability of Walker’s tune that it also worked superbly in this pared down duo format. The composer ushered in his tune with an extended solo guitar introduction and his brisk chording then underpinned an iridescent Simcock solo, the pianist then returning the favour as the composer’s guitar took flight prior to a highly rhythmic joint conclusion.

A series of solo piano and guitar exchanges developed into a second tune sourced from the jazz standards canon (“All The Things You Are” if I remember correctly, the tune wasn’t announced) with each member of the duo subsequently adding a more conventional jazz solo, Walker going first.

The set concluded with a gleeful rendition of Steve Swallow’s “Ladies In Mercedes”, probably the composer’s best known tune. The veteran American electric bass specialist was an original member of The Impossible Gentlemen and remains great friends with the group. The catchy “Ladies In Mercedes” has become a modern jazz standard and has had a set of witty and intelligent lyrics added to it by Norma Winstone, a brilliant example of the art of ‘vocalese’ .
Tonight the piece was introduced by Walker at the guitar as Simcock deployed the inside of the piano as percussion before eventually sitting himself at the keyboard to pick out the melodic vamp that drives the tune. Subsequent solos came from Walker and Simcock, both dazzlingly exuberant affairs that left an attentive and enthusiastic audience wanting more.

The brief encore saw the duo reprising a section from the “St. Matthew Passion” with Simcock sketching the hymn like melody above Walker’s sparse chording and subsequently embellishing it with a more jazz inflected solo.

This was a lovely way to bring the curtain down on an evening of exquisite music making. Despite the lateness of the hour everybody departed feeling enthused by what they had heard. The rapport that Simcock and Walker have developed through their writing sessions and performances with The Impossible Gentlemen suggests that like the band itself the duo might become more than just a temporary entity.  I can envisage further performances in the future, in addition to the two already scheduled, and it would be nice to think that may record a duo album together at some point.