BRIDGE Music's Thursday jazz series at the art club gives a platform to an admirably wide range of musical styles.
Running the gamut from the classic jazz of drummer Ken Mathieson's modestly-sized orchestra and the Dixieland with a contemporary edge of recent visitors the Nova Scotia Jazz Band and on through fusion, funk, jazzified Stravinsky and the more experimental side of the music, this open doors policy ensures that it would be a very particular sort who played the "there's nothing for me here" card. It also offers something quite individual from time to time.
Such a time was last Thursday when the Japanese quartet Gato Libre's European tour brought them to town. The group's dominant force, trumpeter Natsuki Tamura has worked with local musicians including Bill Wells and Raymond MacDonald, of Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra, and they brought along a few colleagues to swell the attendance.
Tamura is an interesting player with a fine, warm tone and the ability to induce effective crying, anguished sounds. His trumpet sat most comfortably in a group that itself presented quite a variety of approaches, including Spanish and spaghetti western-sounding themes. On paper their instrumentation, with accordion, trombone and acoustic guitar joining Tamura's trumpet, promises much but to these ears, their efforts only occasionally truly gelled, resulting in a performance that was a bit heavy going overall.
Guitarist Kazuhiko Tsumara's overly staccato approach didn't help, often grating against the sparse thoughtful voicings of the two horns and accordion, although he redeemed himself at one point after a time-occupying abstract feature by locking into a strong riff with accordionist Satoko Fujii that gathered a certain momentum.
HH
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