Another day, another venue. For the festival’s second day we have moved to the Malta International Contemporary Arts Centre (MICAS) in Floriana (whose football team had a great win over Shamrock Rovers in the first qualifying round of the Champions League). The current exhibition of the work of Reggie Burrows Hodges runs until the end of August and is well worth a visit. Now back to the jazz: the Vincent Bourgeyx Trio were tonight’s band of choice and what a great choice it turned out to be.
French born pianist Vincent Bourgeyx led this classic jazz trio combination through six numbers and an encore starting with an original composition June. The tune opened with a delightful piano solo before bassist Darty Hall and drummer Gregory Hutchinson added their respective sounds to the number. A good opening number, lyrical, percussive and, at times, dynamic.
The following five numbers were all taken from the trio’s recent album release Life Letters on the Fresh Sounds record label, which can be found on Bandcamp. Stuck in Blues, as one might guess from the title, had blues based piano lines, loping walking bass lines (plus a rather good solo spot) and great timekeeping from Hutchinson – who opened the number with a well delivered drum solo. Hopeless Romantic was a melodically spacious, relaxed ballad with deft brush work from Hutcherson, great interplay between Bourgeyx and Hall – the bass resonance carried nicely across the open-aired balcony of the festival venue.
Kafka’s Nightmare was, for me, the tune of the evening. It was played at pace with constantly changing dynamics (I don’t think there were many keys that Bourgeyx didn’t use). There was a shifting, energetic vibrancy about this number that drew me in. The drums of Hutchinson rippled throughout punctuated by crashing cymbals and firm bass. Let’s Play One is a Thad Jones number opened by Darryl Hall, and boy can Hall play bass (I did spot bassist Yoni Zelnik in the audience, it would have been good to hear what he thought of Hall’s performance). Another great blues number that went down very well with the audience.
The jazz funk tune Flash Pocket was an audience participation number led by Gregory Hutchinson. Bass and drum driven Hutchinson directed the audience in two part hand clapping, the audience delivered! In a Hurry followed and as the title might suggest, the tempo went up with terrific interplay across the trio. Of course there was an encore, which they did make us wait for, in the shape of Horace Silver’s Peace – a wonderful tune in which to finish an extraordinary nights live jazz music.
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