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Review

Mick Coady’s Synergy

Mick Coady’s Synergy, The Foyer, Symphony Hall, Birmingham, 11/10/2013.


by Ian Mann

October 14, 2013

/ LIVE

A hugely enjoyable event performed in front of an attentive and impeccably behaved audience.

Mick Coady’s Synergy featuring David Binney at Symphony Hall Foyer, Birmingham, 11/10/2013.

Whilst writing the adjacent review of “Nine Tales of the Pendulum”, the excellent new album from the Synergy quintet led by bassist and composer Mick Coady, I found myself enjoying the music so much that I felt that I really owed it to myself to make the effort to catch the group on their short UK tour.

This early evening show in the foyer of Birmingham’s Symphony Hall was one of the free Friday evening jazz events hosted by the city’s Jazzlines organisation and represented the opening date of a short tour that was also due to take in the Marsden Jazz Festival.

Much has been made of the presence on the Synergy album of New York based alto saxophonist David Binney, one of the world’s leading contemporary jazz musicians. Binney has visited Birmingham before and has also led a band at Cheltenham Jazz Festival and the prospect of seeing such an influential figure live, and for nothing, was clearly a prospect that appealed to the Birmingham jazz audience. Arriving at the venue a good half hour before the event was due to start we found the ground floor totally rammed with every seat taken but found ourselves an excellent vantage point on the front row of the first balcony, directly overlooking the band.

Today’s line up proved to be a quartet with Coady and Binney joined by pianist Ivo Neame, who also appears on the album, plus drummer Jon Scott who was deputising for the advertised James Maddren, who in turn was replacing the album’s Sean Carpio. Leader Cody was born in Ireland but is now London based but turned to his homeland to recruit Carpio and the experienced tenor saxophonist Michael Buckley. Buckley’s place on the tour is being filled by Julian Arguelles but unfortunately he was unavailable this afternoon, I’m led to understand that he subsequently appeared at Marsden. I have to admit that I was more than a little disappointed by Arguelles’ absence, the blend of alto and tenor on the album is one of its biggest strengths, but on the plus side many of the others present seemed to relish the prospect of getting more Binney for their money, figuratively speaking.

As this was a non paying gig I won’t go into my usual detail and I didn’t take any notes. The quartet played two sets with a very short interval with the material mainly sourced from Coady’s pieces on the “Nine Tales of the Pendulum” album. Binney and Neame brought along compositions from their own recorded repertoires including the saxophonist’s “The Blue Whale” from his excellent quartet album “Lifted Land” which I treated myself to at the gig. Released on Criss Cross Jazz in 2013 it features an all star line up including pianist Craig Taborn, bassist Eivind Opsvik and the extraordinary drummer Tyshawn Sorey. 
Neame’s offering was “Birdbrained” from his 2009 album “Caught In The Light Of Day”, its skittering energy well suited to the playing of this quartet, and particularly that of Binney.

From our lofty vantage point we had an excellent view of the band and it was particularly educational to study Neame’s piano technique and to see the interior workings of Symphony Hall’s magnificent grand piano. Inevitably at a foyer gig the sound was a little muddy and lost some definition as it drifted up to us but the usual hubbub that sometimes detracts from these events was virtually absent. This was an audience that had come to listen and which did so most attentively, I offer my congratulations to the music lovers of Birmingham for their impeccable behaviour.

Okay, it wasn’t quite the same as seeing the full quintet in a formal concert setting but this was still a hugely enjoyable event and an hour and a half very well spent. Thanks to the guys in the band for taking the time to talk to me both before and after the event. The quartet was very well received as I’ve intimated above. I hope the rest of the tour is able to build on this success and suspect that the best is yet to come. 


The remaining tour dates are;

October 15, 9pm - Con Cellar Bar, Camden, London, UK
October 17, 8pm - Band On The Wall, Manchester, UK
October 18, 9pm - Studio 3 at the Dr. Anton Phillipszaal, Den Haag, Holland

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