Posts Tagged ‘Birmingham Conservatoire Jazz Course’

The trio Fly with Mark Turner on tenor and soprano saxophone, Larry Grenadier on bass and Jeff Ballard on drums gave us all a treat last week in Birmingham.  They had given a wonderful performance at a sold out Cheltenham Jazz festival show, a performance that was much praised in the review’s of this year’s very successful festival, but they seemed that little bit more relaxed at the Birmingham show.  This was, I suspect, partly because they had more time in the 2-set show, but also because they had given one of the best master classes ever for the Jazz Course at the Conservatoire in the afternoon.  The students were really there with them on the evening gig.

As always, Peter Bacon’s comments on his Jazz Breakfast site give an excellent summary of the gig; you can read that and see Russ Escritt’s photo here.

Fly is a trio whose music is based on musical and personal respect between the three players.  This respect leads to the very interactive nature of the music; it feels very loose and free, but it is based on a harmonic approach to improvisation.  Mark Turner’s solos are special with totally unique use of the possibilities of each tune’s harmonic structure.  He acknowledges a strong influence from saxophonist Warne Marsh, a player who studied with pianist Lennie Tristano and is associated with the so-called cool school.  But he is also inspired by John Coltrane and his personal mix of these and other elements make for a very unusual but delightful voice.

Tony