Music / contemporary jazz
Review: QOW Trio, Bebop Club, Hen and Chicken – proper jazz played by people who really know what that means
It was only at the end of the evening that bass player Eddie Myer answered the question that had been on many people’s minds throughout this excellent gig. The band name, he explained, was taken from a powerhouse tune recorded by the great Dewey Redman back in the 70s. The mighty saxophonist sadly never explained why he’d called the tune QOW (pronounced ‘cow’) but happily the trio proceeded to play it for their final number and it was a blast.
QOW trio – Spike Wells, Riley Stone-Lonergan, Eddy Myer (pic – Tony Benjamin)
Whatever their group name there were three reasons why the Bebop Club had quickly filled for this gig: the aforementioned bandleader Eddie Myer known for impeccable precision and quick-thinking free playing, impressively talented young tenor saxophonist Riley Stone-Lonergan and drummer Spike Wells. Spike has an almost legendary status in the UK jazz pantheon having begun his career in the 60s as part of the definitely legendary Tubby Hayes Quartet. Now in his 80th year, this evening showed he still has the capacity to mesmerise an audience and steer a tight trio without, it seemed, even breaking a sweat.
Spike Wells (pic – Tony Benjamin)
Their tour is promoting the band’s third album ‘The Rule of Three’ and, with a couple of extra numbers, they pretty much played it through. It was a nice mix, starting with Riley’s title track and his fulsome Coltrane-tinged solo. The tune provided the first opportunity for drums and bass to demonstrate the kind of tight two-way trade that would underpin much of the evening’s high points. Eddy opened Kurt Angle, a wrestler-themed number rededicated to Mick McManus, the bass-player’s round tone and quick fingers settling into a hard pulse. What then kicked off was a vivid narrative of fearsome free-blowing explosions that collapsed into breathlessness, resolved with a snapping solo from Spike to steer things home. It felt like a fight where everyone was a winner, not least the audience.
QOW Trio (pic – Tony Benjamin)
Another high came from Ghosts, an obvious nod to free jazz pioneer Albert Ayler with hollering sax, big drums and sawing (soaring?) bass within which you could find glimpses of a catchy calypso and New Orleans snare drum. It was a rich mix, as was the more restrained playing for Billy Stray-horn’s Lush Life, the wistfully soulful 3-time melody drawing out an effortlessly eloquent sax solo over intricately interlocked drum and bass. (Interestingly the Bristolian reading of the phrase ‘lush life’ – i.e. a pretty good thing – is the opposite of Strayhorn’s American meaning – i.e. the sad and dissolute life of a drunken ‘lush’). Things got much more upbeat with NowHere, an uber jaunty calypso with fine duets between sax and drums and drums and bass where their three-way creativity made it impossible to keep your focus on any one player at a time. Another fiery drum solo closed that tune to an immediate roar of applause.
QOW Trio (pic – Tony Benjamin)
And so it went – this was proper jazz played by people who really know what that means, with elements of bebop, hard bop and free modernism at their fingertips whenever they felt it right. Despite the obvious generation gaps the shared collectivity of the QOW trio is very much of one mind, making for a tightly confident assurance that ran through the evening. It was all capped off by that finale of Dewey Redman’s tune, a combination of a loweringly tight bass and drum pulse swept aside with intricate fast bopping melodic lines and an exuberantly free abandon. It was clear why the tune had so impressed them and their rendition certainly impressed us – born out by the queue of album-buyers after the music had stopped.
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