Music / Jazz
Review: Rebecca Nash Quartet, Bebop Club
It was standing room only at the back of the Bebop – a good crowd had turned out for pianist Rebecca Nash’s prodigal return to Bristol, having taken the first steps of her jazz career from the family home barely 100 yards from the club’s front door.
After training in Cardiff and London she’s all-too rarely seen hereabouts so this gig came with big expectations, though not as big as those in the rammed out bar next door where the Six Nations rugby was being hotly contested. This was unfortunate as Nash’s style is reflective and restrained, with a preference for ballads whose quieter passages could barely compete with ‘Swing Low Sweet Chariot’.
It was also obvious early on that trumpeter Nick Malcolm was far from well, though this showed more on his face than in his playing – his lengthy ruminative solo on Tumbleweed, for instance, being a model of controlled tone and fluency.
The set list mixed the pianist’s compositions with compatible ‘covers’ and if anything the former won out, though Nash’s most unbridled piano solo came on Kenny Wheeler’s Doctrinaire and A Beautiful Friendship seemed to unleash drummer Matt Fisher and bass player Chris Mapp thanks to a steady hand on the piano keys. Of the original tunes Dreams was one standout, beginning with a distant church organ and haunted trumpet that modulated surprisingly into a cool West Coast riff, and another was a tune that had as yet no name, having only just been written.
That one had a more electronic feel, with Mapp reverting to dazzling bass guitar and Nash playing emphatic synth-flavoured keyboards while Fisher’s bewildering drumming coalesced into a 3-time drum’n’bass onslaught that united the piece perfectly, leaving Malcolm’s stacatto trumpet to weave and stab into the mix.
This was a serious gig of complex tunes played with respect by a fairly new band – but if there was an air of concentration it was far from a grim experience. Like the best bandleaders Rebecaa Nash writes for the ensemble and plays to enhance rather than dominate, giving this quartet performance a genuine integrity. Paradoxically, however, her self-effacement only emphasises the presiding personality she has infused into the music.
Our top newsletters emailed directly to you
