A SPACESHIP flies off to seek a planet where it will find the component that allows it to clone itself many times over, thus enabling the clones to fly off to find other, similar planets where they too will clone themselves and enable their clones to go off and repeat this process to infinity and, no doubt, beyond.
You don't get this sort of imagery at every jazz gig. But then, you don't get clarinet and guitar adventures into the realms of the Workers' Playtime theme at every jazz gig either. These are just two examples of the entertainment on offer at Thursday's instalment of Bridge Music's invaluable Glasgow Art Club promotions. And as his introductions will confirm, Dick Lee's an entertainer.
Lee's also a brilliantly inventive musician, composer and bandleader who has hit on a highly individual strain of music that draws on familiar influences – his Francesca's Waltz borrows Chim Chim Cher-ee's chord sequence – but follows a running order where you really can't guess what's coming from the quintet next. This, along with the compositions' character and Lee's wit, is all part of the great charm that Dr Lee's Prescription possesses.
From the slightly Spike Jonesesque nuttiness of guitarist Phil Adams's Vincaffe Horse Frightener, complete with neighing clarinet and Stu Brown's wittily exact drumming, to the dark, electric blues of Promenade and the exquisite use of contrasting colours in Lee's own Dalriada and his superbly conceived "sequels", Autumn Returns and Finish The Beguine, you'd be hard pushed to find a dull moment. It may be an unorthodox prescription, but take two sets nightly and you'll need the resulting smile surgically removed.
HHHH
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