john surman quartet at CBSO Centre

tonyde wrote:

john surman quartet at CBSO Centre

Great to see this wonderful quartet at the CBSO Centre last Friday; great that a big and varied audience came to see them.  There was a good representation of our regular audience and of the students on the jazz course at the Birmingham Conservatoire. 

 

The quartet rarely works.  John mentioned that it had had three gigs in the last four years, Cheltenham Jazz Festival in 2002, one in Poland (I don’t know when exactly) for which the band was paid in special Polish mugs but no fee and Birmingham last Friday. 

 

It was wonderful to see these four great musicians, all in their 60s clearly revelling in each other’s company, both musically and socially. And really having a blow!  I was particularly impressed with John Marshall who had a year out from playing as a result of a back injury in 2004/5.  He is an amazing drummer, forceful, pushy but never over-dominant.

 

Look out for a review in The Times this coming week; this will be posted on www.birminghamjazz.co.uk and for pictures on Russ Escritt’s website www.russpix.co.uk