Jazz at Progress
Friday 4 April 2025
John Law’s Re-Creations ‘Many Moons’ Tour

John Law -  piano & keyboard, Sam Crockett -  soprano & tenor saxophones, Henrik Jensen - bass, Alex Goodyear -  drums

An effervescent arrangement of ‘Let’s Face the Music and Dance’, with a compelling ‘running’ bass line shared between John Law’s left hand at the piano and Henrik Jensen’s double bass, lit the touchpaper for a brilliant evening of jazz by John Law’s Re-Creations at Progress on Friday 4 April 2025.

This was music that immediately touched the heart, the mind and the soul. In complete contrast to the Irving Berlin classic, with its evocation of the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers’ dancing partnership, ‘O Sole Mio’, being ‘tried out’ ahead of the quartet’s forthcoming European tour, inevitably summoned images of Cornetto ice creams. But not for long, John Law worked his magic to transform this sentimental ballad into a funky Latin/calypso groove. Everyone had a ball and the piece must surely have earned a permanent place in the band’s repertoire. Alex Goodyears’s hand-drumming was a particular joy.

Sam Crockett swapped tenor sax for soprano to capture the bittersweet emotions and ultimate elation of ‘Bella Ciao’ (‘Beautiful Goodbye’), a song said to have been adopted by the women working in the paddy fields of northern Italy in the late 19th century, in their protest against harsh working conditions.

With barely a pause for breath John Law expressed the full range of his fertile imagination in a sublime re-creation of Sergei Rachmaninov’s ‘Sonata in G minor for Cello and Piano’. Rich in colour, texture and melodic invention, it held the audience spellbound. Amongst its many high spots: Sam Crockett’s breathy, almost inaudible opening to his tenor solo, Henrik Jensen’s singing bass and Alex Goodyear’s percussive contributions to the tonal palette.

The band delivered a knock-out blow to bring the first set to an explosive conclusion with the theme tune to ‘Rocky III’, a massive hit for Survivor in 1982. But what was the title? I knew it. It was on the tip- of-my-tongue. But what was it? Come on … what was it? As rapturous applause for the band faded and the audience made its way to the bar, the penny finally dropped … ‘Eye of the Tiger’. Of course!!!

Having posed one conundrum, John Law set another tantalizing challenge to open the second set. The audience sat in awed silence as Law wove layer upon layer of pulsing improvisation around a theme which Sam Crockett ultimately revealed as ‘The House of the Rising Sun’ in a declamatory statement on his tenor sax.

As the shock waves of this surprise reverberated around the auditorium, the band sprang another, launching into ‘Smoke on the Water’ as an excursion into the realms of heavy-metal/free form jazz, with Alex Goodyear in ferocious form on the drums.

The restless soul of Miles Davis would have approved of John Law’s re-creation of ‘So What’, the opening track of Miles’ groundbreaking album ‘Kind of Blue’ from 1959. It captured the spirit of the original with the subtle use of electronics and the cool, pared-to-the-bone tenor of Sam Crockett and added a new dimension to the hypnotic quality of the tune’s distinctive call-and-response exchange between piano and bass.

Though not fully credited at the time with his contribution, ‘Kind of Blue’ bore the clear influence of the legendary pianist Bill Evans, who was himself influenced by the French impressionist composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including Maurice Ravel. It was therefore fitting that John Law should follow ‘So What’ with the beautifully reflective ‘Pavane for a Dead Princess’ (‘Pavane pour une Infante Défunte’), composed by Ravel as a student in 1899. Magic!

One word will suffice to describe the party atmosphere conjured by yet another surprise item, Mama Mia’ -WHOA’.

‘You and the Night and the Music’, a near forgotten song by Arthur Schwartz from the totally forgotten 1934 Broadway musical, ‘Revenge with Music’, rounded off the evening in thrilling fashion and brought the concert full circle with a welcome reprise of the ‘running’ bass line used to such great effect on ‘Let’s Face the Music ….’. It has remained firmly fixed in my mind ever since.

What a great evening and while the audience may have lacked numbers, it more than made up for it with its generous spirit and enthusiasm. We wish John Law’s Re-Creations every success with their tour of Germany and the Netherlands which will be well under way by the time this review is posted.

As ever, our thanks to the Progress volunteer stewards and Front of House team for their warm hospitality and to Rich Saunders for the excellent sound and lighting. Thanks also to Hickie’s Music Store of Reading and Tiverton, for the hire of the piano.

TREVOR BANNISTER

P.S.
I’ve also attached two shots of the band taken by Steve Foster. I will leave  you to decide which is the most suitable. My preference is for the b/w, if only for the story that goes with it. Steve couldn’t get any shots of John, except with his disembodied head looking out over the top of the piano, so he decided to turn things round at the photo-shoot after the gig, with the full figure of John in front of the piano, backed by the disembodied heads of the band looking out over the piano.