John Etheridge...

[jack]

Went to see John Etheridge, Yaron Stavi (bass) & Mark Fletcher (drums) last night.

Stunning. Loved (most of) it. Good mix of old & new.

They had some annoying twat violinist with them - Nigel somebody - been a lot happier if he had stayed at home...

[The Stratmangler]

with Nigel Kennedy
Sept 27 Scarborough Jazz Festival. Quartet
Sept 28 /29 St Mary's Church Frant. Duo
Oct 12 'Fludyers', Felixstowe with Russ Morgan Trio

Surely not this Nigel

[jack]

with Nigel Kennedy
Sept 27 Scarborough Jazz Festival. Quartet
Sept 28 /29 St Mary's Church Frant. Duo
Oct 12 'Fludyers', Felixstowe with Russ Morgan Trio

Surely not this Nigel

That'd be the one. St. Alban's (not St. Mary's) Frant last night - he arrived 30 minutes late - acoustics were very good - though the church is stone, the roof is panelled and with a full audience of about 250 - 300, there was just about enough "soft furnishing" to absorb any harshness.

The sound engineers did a good job too - Kennedy was patently on something - he admits to smoking a lot of pot to "aid his creativity" - but the contrived "cheeky chappie" personality the so grated when he was in his twenties, is still there in an older & fatter body and just as annoying He also managed to drop his coffee cup onto Yaron Stavi's feedback amp which stopped the concert while the roadies mopped up and dried it out - Stavi seemed to be getting mild shocks from the double bass... - the engineer, whilst walking off stage, pointed at Kennedy and said "Just never let this man into your house"...

Stavi was superb and Etheridge was, as usual, excellent. Whilst I admire Kennedy's technical skills, I find his manner and rather weak & forced patter just irritating

Amusingly, much of the audience were not their target market, being mainly rather superannuated traditionalists from the local farming community - we know many of them through the NFU (my in-laws are local farmers) - I suspect they all came along expecting to hear the Four Seasons etc. and were rather shocked by what happened next Many left during the second half...