Jazz Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Phil Meadows Quartet
Sunday 24 January 2010

Phil Meadows – saxes
John Sandham – bass
Chris Illingworth – piano
Rob Turner – drums

The language of life has 4 letters – A,C,G,T – the 4 nucleotides that make up the steps on the spiral staircase of DNA. If you consider the letters musically, then 75% of life is music!

If you laid out the DNA from a single cell, it would be six feet long – just about the height of an average 19 year old.

Phil Meadows is by no means average, but I bet 75% of his life is music! He plays with emotion which is evidenced by the way he holds himself when playing …. either standing on one leg like a flamingo, running on the spot or stretching up on both legs.

He expresses himself physically as well as musically and he also has that rare ability to convert ideas into musical form …. a good example being the self-penned composition which opened the set - “The Man with an Arm for a Nose and a Cone for a Beard”.

Throughout the set he gave explanations behind the song titles and this added to the overall relaxed feel of the set as well as connecting with the audience.

The second tune “Midnight Light” gave the opportunity for nice solos by sax, piano and bass and then a beautiful piano intro led us into “Esbjörn” …. named after the late Swedish pianist Esbjörn Svensson.

This was one of the stand-out pieces for me and it showcased some very sympathetic playing by the band …. in particular the pianist. These musicians appear to have music in their veins – judging by the non-verbal communication they have with each other.

The fourth number was entitled “Bobo” …. a piece they had played only once before today but you wouldn’t have known that!

The first set closed with a musical dedication to their original drummer …. sax and piano solos giving way to a nice piece of counterpoint between sax and drums.

The second set opened with “Mearcat” … a composition inspired by Phil having once been on the same bill as Nicholas Meares and Gilad Atzmon.

The next tune “By Wednesday” turned out to have been his first composition some 4 or 5 years ago …. sympathetic soloing and shimmering cymbals releasing the melancholy in the piece.

“‘Bout Time” was part of a suite composed after Phil’s leaving music school in Manchester …. followed by “Juggling Spinmaster” – a piece inspired by a day trip to York during which he spent 45 minutes watching a street artist attempting to juggle yellow balls in the air outside Betty’s Tea Rooms.

That image did not leave my mind, so I just closed my eyes and I found that the music fitted the image perfectly! ….loping fretless bass, sax and drum duet ….

After a moment to get his breath back we were given another newish tune “Family” …. bass / sax intro …. nice use of “loops” on the sax ….

 
 …. before going into the next piece, which for me was the best of the entire set “My Favourite Things”. It was also a brave choice because it was done in the style of Coltrane’s version on Live at The Village Vanguard.

To my ears it also added something … exciting to listen to as well as interesting to watch the band, their eyes focused on each other …. sax, piano solos giving way to just bass and drum …. Terrific!

This would have been a great closer …. but the gig was being recorded in hopes of being able to put out a live CD …. so we had a reprise of the first number as there had been a problem with recording the first version.

When I was 19 the only things I was any generally any good at was drinking and being able to listen to music …. to hear and feel the emotion in the music. This set reminded me of those times.

I really enjoyed it …. one of my greyhounds had torn a hole in the driving seat of my car the day before, so I was looking for something to lift my mood!  This music did just that.

I spoke with Phil during the interval and he told me what a privilege it was to work with these musicians and I think that came over. The band have only been together 18 months …. but I would go a step further and say that if the Phil Meadows Quartet continue in this vein, they will more than make a name for themselves in the jazz of the future.

Another winner for Seven Jazz as well!