Music / Jazz
Review: Andy Sheppard: Letters to Marlene, St George’s
You can’t blame St George’s for billing this gig the way they did. Since he moved to Europe Andy Sheppard’s occasional visits to Bristol become an inevitable gathering of old friends (as well as reliably classy musical experiences). But given the obvious passion for Marlene Dietrich emanating from pianist Guillaume de Chassy and the fact that all the music was composed by him or drummer Christophe Marguet it was clearly their project into which Andy had been fruitfully drawn.
He was an interesting choice, his innately lyrical approach often a contrasting foil to the more austere chamber jazz formalities of the French duo. His animated reading of Dietrich’s classic Lili Marlene, for instance ebbed and flowed over a restrained piano and drum undertow, while samples of the woman herself came in and out of focus. As in de Chassy’s Letter to Marlene, the sax was a floating rejoinder to the close knit empathy of the piano and drums.
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Maybe it was the homecoming audience, or the after-effects of a month in America with Carla Bley, but by the middle of Marguet’s more boppish America it became clear that Andy intended to flex his muscles. While the piano delivered a damped insistence over a quasi-military drumbeat the sax took on a bluesy inflection. What followed was a quite brilliant modal solo, unpicking its own modulations in a freely improvised flow of Coltrane-influenced playing that even featured a literal ‘call and response’ section.
Things got even hotter in Et In Terra Pax, an initially solemn and ponderous piece whose thickly chorded piano brought on an angrily rueful soprano sax. The piece dissipated before re-emerging at an altogether more jaunty pace, Andy’s cascading minimalist arpeggios sustained by circular breathing to match Guillaume’s rippling fingerwork all the way to an abrupt ending.
By now things felt nicely loosened, and the pianist was visibly enjoying the exchange of ideas in Alone, their two ‘voices’ distinctively different yet their dialogue seamlessly convincing. For this number the drumming provided more of a sonic tapestry than any kind of rhythmic drive, and indeed Christophe’s very disciplined performance throughout gave the music its chamber jazz atmosphere. Only in Les Ardennes did he let rip with his solo, combining elbow slides and remorselessly thunderous bass drumming with tightly controlled riffs.
Ironically, but perhaps unsurprisingly, it was the loose tango encore that finally revealed the trio itself. Freed from the compositional ambitions of the Letters to Marlene suite it was as though they’d kicked off their shoes and shucked their jackets. The piece bounced with energy, featherlight tenor sax and hard-hitting drums woven around a richly imaginative piano solo. It was an entertaining glimpse into another kind of performance altogether – one it might be good to catch in a late night piano bar down by the Seine.
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