Music / Jazz
Review: Messore, Moore & Stockham Brown/Spirited Bristol – things soon became rivetingly energised
One sure sign that the Sunday afternoon jazz sessions at Spirited Bristol are going well is that the once-monthly gigs are now going weekly. That you actually need to book in advance for these free gigs is another. A key factor is uber-drummer Matt Stockham Brown: he curates them and having been Bristol’s first call drummer for some years his contacts list is a who’s who of the city’s jazz talent.
Dan Messore, Matt Stockham Brown, Dan Moore (pic: Tony Benjamin)
Matt doesn’t always play, of course, but on this occasion he’s central to a reunion of old musical friends with Dan Moore on Hammond keyboards and Dan Messore’s guitar. It’s good to see Messore back in town after spending a long time away in Costa Rica, and while Moore has remained in BS4 a combination of touring stints and studio session work makes him harder to catch live. Despite being completely unrehearsed, their individual instrumental skills and friendly group chemistry promised much from this one-off performance.
Dan Messore, Matt Stockham Brown (pic: Tony Benjamin)
After warming up with a by-the-book cool blues number things soon became rivetingly energised with another more gripping bluesy tune. After an ethereal start Messore’s stinging guitar solo had shades of Peter Green’s Black Magic Woman, smoothly picked up in a jaunty Hammond parody then swept aside by an explosion of drums. It was a revelatory moment, quickly suppressed with a tidy final chorus, that more than hinted at what musical power lay beneath their surface nonchalance.
is needed now More than ever
Dan Moore (pic: Tony Benjamin)
And sure enough things got very interesting, notably in a couple of tunes most associated with trumpeter Chet Baker: a coolly jazz reading of Alone Together boasted a straight ahead Wes Montgomery-style guitar solo that slowly disintegrated into a fast drum shuffle and a deep dive into Hammond harmonics, while a sculpted solo guitar intro led My Funny Valentine into an unlikely cha-cha groove, a playful and unexpected reading that worked very well. The icing on the cake, however, was a superb version of Nick Caves’s Into My Arms gently introduced with the kind of allusive meandering guitar associated with the likes of Bill Frisell. That was initially played over brushed drums then suddenly derailed in a momentary frenzy of musical passion before subsiding into the haunting chorus, This cycle repeated, each player getting their chance to revisit the tune, erupt momentarily and then reclaim the stately grace of the original.
Messore, Moore, Stockham Brown – the view from the bus stop (pic: Tony Benjamin)
It was as fine a display of empathetic group improvisation as you could see anywhere, at any price, and here we were getting it for free in a North Street shopfront. As were the passers by, whose brief responses are always an extra cabaret dimension in these situations and which varied from complete bemusement and studied indifference to delighted appreciation. Some even took advantage of the adjacent bus stop to sit awhile and enjoy the music, little realising that they were on the very spot where the musical trio had sat before the gig.
Messore, Moore, Stockham Brown (pic: Tony Benjamin)
All in all it was one of those great moments where excellent music and a nicely relaxed environment came together perfectly and the only way to top it off was, of course, a dram of peaty malt from the bar’s comprehensive whisky list. Slàinte Mhath!
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