Music / British jazz
Review: Alex Clarke Quartet, Bebop Club, Hen and Chicken
Saxophonist Alex Clarke started winning Rising Star awards in 2019, quickly followed by reaching the 2020 finals of the BBC Young Jazz Musician of the Year. Since then her profile has understandably grown but even the most meteoric of careers can’t guarantee a smooth ride down the M5. Alex and drummer Clark Tracey had a hard time getting down to Bristol for this gig but if it left them bothered it hardly showed and, once in the company of James Owston’s bass and Dave Newton on piano, things were soon swinging nicely.
Alex Clarke, Clark Tracey (picture: Tony Benjamin)
Though she writes her own material, Alex has a fine respect for well chosen standards and this evening’s sets were all venerable covers – if not always given a reverent arrangement. Thus I Get A Kick Out Of You began as a super-brisk bossa that shifted into a leisurely swing for the middle eight. Alex gave it a playful tenor solo with shades of Lester Young before handing over to Dave who really had fun with the tune, rippling around the melody and driving it along with nicely harmonised left hand chords.
Dave Newton, James Owston (picture: Tony Benjamin)
The rhythm section had already distinguished themselves on the thoughtful Rogers and Hart number Where or When, holding things tightly with walking bass and precision drums before James took a nimble solo over Dave’s light touch harmonics and Clark’s breathy cymbal work. Their collective empathy really showed on the slower ballad You Don’t Know What Love Is offering Alex’s wavering vocalised alto a lush context to develop the melody. Again, Dave delivered a beautifully phrased post-cocktail piano solo and the whole had a nicely sincere feel without over-emoting. It was in sharp contrast with the fast blues-boogie feel of Cannonball Adderley’s Sticks which followed to close the first set.
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Alex Clarke Quartet (picture: Tony Benjamin)
In picking her collaborators for this music Alex has chosen well, both in terms of their talents and aptitudes. As a result the foursome felt very comfortable playing her choice of repertoire harking back to the time of hard bopping ‘modern jazz’ some 50 years past, their style a nostalgic treat for the audience’s grey-haired majority. The collectivity was most effective in the swinging rendition of Jerome Kern’s Nobody Else But Me, laced with a hard-edged bop solo from Alex’s alto and a Brubecky piano outing underpinned by big flourishes on the drums and flawless walking bass. It was a smoking ensemble number, nicely arranged to both celebrate and refresh a great tune.
James Owston, Alex Clarke, Clark Tracey (picture: Tony Benjamin)
Things closed with a down and dirty old-school bash through Errol Garner’s Shake It But Don’t Break It, a witty and energetic romp evoking a ‘smoke-filled room’ vibe the old Hen & Chicken would have reliably provided. Alex ripped into her tenor solo and then everything fell away for Dave, playing alone, to nicely evoke the song’s composer with a gleeful collage of chops and surprises absolutely welded both to the groove and the tune. The subsequent ensemble payout was a thoroughly satisfying way to draw thing as to their close after a proper evening of ‘the kind of jazz they don’t make any more’ (except, of course, that they did – and very well, too).
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