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John Williams joined forces with John Etheridge |
Keeping up with the Johns
REVIEW: JOHN WILLIAMS/JOHN ETHERIDGE
Pizza Express Jazz Club
JOHN Etheridge is a terrific guitarist. An exciting exponent of jazz, the driving force behind the Zappatistas, a celebration of Frank Zappa, and a frequent performer at Pizza Express Jazz Club in Dean Street.
But the real star of the club’s concert on Sunday night was John Williams, the wonderful and prolific guitarist who has been thrilling audiences for nearly 50 years with his virtuosity, poise and sense of adventure.
I first came across him after hearing the 1970s recordings he made with Julian Bream, performing works by the likes of Granados, Albeniz, Ravel and de Falla.
But he has never wanted to be pigeon-holed and during his career has collaborated with Cleo Laine, The Who’s Pete Townshend and Paco Pena.
This concert was billed as a showcase for Places Between, an album on which Williams and Etheridge have collaborated.
Together the pair presented their own works as well as pieces from Latin America and West Africa, which made for a thrilling evening’s music.
Williams also played numbers from his terrific Venezuelan album El Diablo Suelto, including the wonderful Benito Canonico piece El Totumo de Guarenas where his virtuosity could really be seen, with four fingers fluttering over the strings, setting down a harmony, while his thumb played the melody.
The music was so evocative of small dusty towns in the sweltering Americas; something normally hard to imagine in a smoky basement club in Soho.
There were some outstanding duets, a couple using Kora melodies from Mali, and a number called Places Between, a piece which had hints of Coltrane’s My Favourite Things.
Etheridge’s Extra Time, a distinctive work based on the Bach chorale, was a delight, full of arpeggiated phrases, with Spanish-influenced dance twisted into the harmony.
Stormy Weather wasn’t so successful and neither was Etheridge’s version of Mingus’s Goodbye Pork Pie Hat – the tone of the guitar too sharp and ethereal for my taste.
But these are minor gripes in what was an outstanding concert.
And it ended with a suitable climax, a work called Peace, Lover and Guitars by Benjamin Verdery, which gave both guitarists ample opportunity to show off their skills.
The concert further confirms the phenomenon of John Williams. He is a musician able to tackle the hardest material from across the world and is never afraid of challenging himself. |
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