Music / Reviews
Review: Damian Cook Quintet, Bepop Club
It’s always been a feature of the Bebop Club programme to welcome a visiting jazz soloist with a hand-picked band of local talent. Until recently, they would have been expecting to meet alto saxophonist Damian Cook off the train from Paddington but as he’s newly moved down to Bradford On Avon he almost counts as local now.
The line-up was tasty – Jim Blomfield (piano), Rian Vosloo (bass) and Andy Tween (drums) joining Cook and trumpeter Andy Hague – and a set of hard bop standards was equally promising.
The genial Cook seemed to settle into his stride easily and the fiendish bop intros to Split Kick and Hot House flowed in smooth unison with Hague’s trumpet.
Blomfield’s piano drove things throughout with cross-rhythmic stabs and tumbling arpeggios. A moody swamp-blues reading of Round Midnight let players and audience relax into this cosy favourite without falling into clichés and by the time Horace Silver’s Opus de Funk closed the first set it was clear the band had settled into itself and both Blomfield and Tween unleashed fiery solos worthy of the late great composer’s band.
The second half was harder and boppier, with tunes mostly drawn from Cannonball Adderley (an obvious influence on Cook’s playing style).
Dat Dere was a rocking number with an all-too brief spell of atmospheric sax and bass dueting, while Cook’s playing took on a relaxed sophistication for Bohemia After Dark.
By this stage the rapport between the players was well established, with the visitor happy to use the ensemble talents as much as his own.
As always happens with a skilled ‘scratch’ band the last number showed how things could have been – in this case a nicely careless coasting through Nat Adderley’s Worksong, full of style and spark.
On the showing of tonight’s gig and given the closeness of Bradford on Avon it’s to be hoped that Damian Cook is going to be a more regular player hereabouts from now on.
Our newsletters emailed directly to you
