Satoko Fujii-Tom Bancroft Ensemble:
Vincent
Glasgow Art Club
Rob Adams
THE now quite considerable arc of drummer, percussionist and composer Tom Bancroft's career shows a musician who has always been willing to test himself.
Across orchestral projects, mid-range ensembles and trios, and from children's extravaganzas and jazz theatre whimsy to collaborations with seriously significant talents, including pianist Geri Allen, Bancroft has embraced great British soul band Kokomo's exhortation to Use Your Imagination.
His latest idea, a trio with Japanese pianist Satoko Fujii and Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra double bassist Una McGlone has yet to develop into one of Bancroft's better outfits, however.
The music, largely spontaneous, takes its titles and moods ostensibly from the work of Vincent van Gogh, and as well as injecting rhythmic patterns on both drum kit and bodhran that to a degree lent shape and definition to his colleagues' use of the internal and external properties of the piano and the bowing, scraping and smacking of one double bass and the electronic integration of another, Bancroft acted as a typically jovial cross between emcee and art gallery guide.
Fujii contributed some nice tones and imagery and engaged with Bancroft in musical conversations, but the longueurs rather exceeded such fascination as the trio conjured together.
The highlight came when Natsuki Tamura, Fujii's husband - of a number of years that, with some mirth, proved beyond her arithmetic - joined the trio on pocket trumpet, adding a pair of mysterious shakers that sounded idiosyncratically Japanese and one of those tipping cow toys that go "moo" and proved amusingly musical.
He, alas, declined another guest spot later, robbing the evening of any further moments of pure theatre.
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