Another musical evening in the legendary jazz venue that is Ronnie Scott's. They have a strict 'no photography' rule, even crappy iPhone pictures, in part to protect the monopoly of their in-house photographer David Sinclair. So here is my photo of the evening:
I have no idea what style or genre of jazz the support act "Curios" was but it is what I think of as "dinner jazz" - very mellow and featuring wire brush on the drum kit. With the pianist as the composer the nearest I could think of in our collection was Chick Corea but these guys were more laid back. Alas I do not know enough about jazz sub-genres to really put a name to what style I am listening to.
When Courtney Pine started playing I was sometimes reminded of Spyro Gyra who Wikipedia informs me are 'jazz fusion' and 'smooth jazz'.
The first track he was a bit too much of a show-off virtuoso. For the second track he eased it back a bit and made it more of an ensemble. Then he played an excellent, long, two-set performance finishing at 11pm so we got our money's worth.
Ahead of the beat: Courtney Pine (Picture: David Sinclair)
As he chatted I revised my opinion regards his egocentricity - he came across as a really nice, down-to-earth bloke, genuinely chuffed to be in Ronnie Scott's and with a real passion for the music.
At the end we bought a CD by the guitarist Cameron Pierre and a vinyl of Courtney's latest album which he signed for us. Top evening!
Evening Standard 4 * review
Guardian 3 * review
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