Aaron Moloney Trio with Vasilis Xenopoulos, Kidderminster Jazz Club, St. Ambrose Parish Centre, Kidderminster, 05/09/2025

Aaron Moloney – drums, Keenan Ngo – piano, Mark Trounson – double bass

with Vasilis Xenopoulos – tenor & alto saxophones

Kidderminster Jazz Club’s 2025/2026 season got off to a superb start with this performance by a Midlands based trio led by drummer Aaron Moloney and their guest, Greek born, London based saxophonist Vasilis Xenopoulos.

Coventry based Moloney, who is also an acclaimed educator, has previously appeared at Kidderminster Jazz Club as a member of bands accompanying vocalists Esther Bennett and Katriona Taylor. He also leads his own trio featuring pianist Keenan Ngo and either Mark Trounson or Wayne Matthews. The Moloney Trio hosts a regular jam session at Warwick Arts Centre and this residency has helped to ensure that they have become a commendably tight and well balanced unit, making them the perfect partners for visiting saxophone soloist Vasilis Xenopoulos, with whom they had worked a couple of times before. The trio and Xenopoulos have established an impressive rapport and this was very much in evidence this evening.

Athens born Xenopoulos is a graduate of the famous Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA, USA but has since made his home in London. One of the best ‘straightahead’ saxophonists around Xenopoulos is a highly popular musician with British jazz audiences, both as the leader of his own groups, and as a prolific sideman. He has released three albums as a leader plus further recordings as a co-leader with pianist Paul Edis and guitarist Nigel Price.

Xenopoulos has appeared on the Jazzmann web pages on numerous occasions, often in the company of Price. Xenopoulos has been a regular guest with Price’s organ trio and the pair have also co-led XPQ, aka the Xenopoulos-Price Quartet. Others with whom Xenopoulos has worked include Edis trumpeter Stuart Henderson, bassist Shez Raja, vocalist Katriona Taylor, drummer Steve Taylor, percussionist Keith Fairbairn and oud player (and fellow ex-pat Greek) Stefanos Tsourelis.

Together with trumpeter Quentin Collins Xenopoulos is the co-leader of the quintet Five Way Split, a band that also includes pianist Rob Barron, bassist Matyas Hofecker and drummer Matt Home. Playing original material but firmly rooted in the hard bop tradition the group is an ongoing concern and released its debut album “All The Way” on the Ubuntu record label in 2023. This recording is reviewed elsewhere on this site, as are numerous other albums and live performances featuring the playing of Xenopoulos. A second Five Way Split album is currently in the pipeline and the quintet continues to gig on a regular basis.

Although tonight’s line up was nominally led by Moloney it was Xenopoulos who handled all the announcements and also appeared to have selected the programme. He explained to the audience that at his two previous gigs with the trio they had performed the kind of familiar standards that experienced jazz musicians refer to as ‘buskers’. Tonight he had presented the trio with something different and more challenging,  an interesting and well chosen selection of less familiar tunes from the jazz canon, including homages to two of his saxophone heroes, Dexter Gordon and Hank Mobley. This entailed that the members of the Moloney Trio had to demonstrate their sight reading skills, something that they did very impressively. Xenopoulos himself played without the benefit of manuscript, a testament to his confidence as a leader and soloist and to his deep knowledge of his chosen material.

Xenopoulos is usually regarded as a tenor sax specialist but he began tonight’s performance on alto saxophone. I don’t recall seeing him play alto before but he immediately impressed in terms of his fluency and inventiveness on an expansive solo during the quartet’s performance of the Jule Styne composition “Make Someone Happy”, a tune variously covered by such diverse jazz artists as pianist Bill Evans and vocalist Tony Bennett. Pianist Keenan Ngo also impressed with a similarly expansive solo, as did drummer Moloney in a series of exchanges with sax and piano. An excellent start.

The first Dexter Gordon related tune of the evening was one of Gordon’s own, “Hanky Panky” from his 1965 recording “Clubhouse”, which remained unreleased until 1979. Featuring a shuffling groove this item saw Xenopoulos stating the theme on tenor before handing over to Leamington based Ngo for the first solo. Once again the young musician impressed at KJC’s splendid upright acoustic piano ‘Delphina’. Vasilis’ own soloing on tenor was as impressive as his earlier excursion on alto and exhibited similar virtues in terms of fluency and inventiveness. Bassist Mark Trounson also enjoyed a concise but convincing solo, while Moloney’s powerful and propulsive drumming was an important component throughout.

Blending elements of Latin and swing the marvellously named “A Sound For Sore Ears” by the Philadelphia born saxophonist Jimmy Heath represented an inspired choice on Xenopoulos’ behalf. The saxophonist continued on tenor and his solo incorporated a quote from “A Love Supreme”, an acknowledgement of Heath’s long standing friendship with the great John Coltrane. Ngo’s piano solo was expansive and impressively varied in terms of style and dynamics while the “hybrid Latin and swing drumming of Aaron Moloney” found expression in a series of fiery exchanges with Xenopoulos.

Xenopoulos cooled things down a little with the Michel Legrand tune “You Must Believe In Spring”, essentially a ballad performance but one enlivened by piano and tenor sax solos the managed to be both lyrical and exploratory, pushing at the boundaries of the form. Toward the end of the piece Trounson’s use of the bow and Xenopoulos’ unaccompanied tenor sax cadenza were particularly notable.

An excellent first half closed with a spirited performance of the Charlie Parker blues “Billie’s Bounce”, ushered in by the trio but with Xenopoulos stating the theme on tenor and taking the first solo. Ngo followed with a typically inventive excursion at the piano before a high energy series of exchanges between Xenopoulos and Moloney that featured some truly dynamic drumming.

Set two commenced with a lively jazz arrangement of the show tune “If Ever I Would Leave You” (from the musical “Camelot”), a second outing for Xenopoulos on alto sax. This included solos from Ngo and Xenopoulos, plus a further series of sax and drum exchanges.

The next two pieces paid homage to Hank Mobley, one of Xenopoulos’ all time sax heroes. A Mobley inspired arrangement of the standard “The Best Things In Life Are Free”, a tune recorded on Mobley’s 1962 Blue Note album “Workout”. Following Xenopoulos’ introductory theme statement bassist Trounson took the first solo, his playing highly dexterous and possessed of an innate sense of swing.  Xenopoulos then took over on tenor, followed by Ngo at the piano.

The second Mobley tribute was an arrangement of “Recado Bossa Nova” from “Dippin’”, another Mobley Blue Note album that was released in 1966. Xenopoulos’ tenor sound was suitably warm toned and ‘Mobley-esque’ as he and Ngo both stretched out with expansive solos. Moloney’s status as leader of the core trio was again acknowledged with a further series of sax and drum exchanges.

This set’s ballad was an arrangement of “I Guess I’ll Hang My Tears Out To Dry” from Gordon’s 1962 Blue Note album “Go!”. This second Gordon tribute was also a second homage to Jule Styne, the composer of the tune. This was a true ballad performance bookended by solo tenor sax cadenzas and with Moloney deploying brushes throughout. Elsewhere we heard lyrical solos from both Xenopoulos and Ngo, plus a melodic double bass solo from Trounson, who again briefly flourished the bow at the close.

That old bebop favourite “Cherokee”, written by the British composer Ray Noble brought the second set to a storming close. Fast paced and swinging this included a quote filled tenor solo from Xenopoulos, a vivacious piano excursion from Ngo and a final series of playful exchanges between Xenopoulos and Moloney.

The audience loved it and the quartet encored with a version of “Ray Noble’s second best known song”, and one that was “less crazy”. This turned out to be “The Touch Of Your Lips”, with gently swinging rhythms cushioning the softer sound of Xenopoulos’ tenor. Nevertheless both Xenopoulos and Ngo took the opportunity to stretch out more forcibly and expansively during the course of their solos, and the performance concluded with the now inevitable bout of sax and drum exchanges.

Although I’ve seen Xenopoulos perform before and have always admired his playing tonight’s show far exceeded my expectations. Over the years I’ve seen plenty of ‘guest London soloist with local rhythm section’ gigs and although largely enjoyable some of them have been a little pedestrian and predictable. Yes, tonight’s show was standards based but there were plenty of surprises in there alongside some of the more familiar chestnuts. But what made tonight truly special was the quality of the playing and the fluency and inventiveness of the soloing, and not just from Xenopoulos. Moloney, Ngo and Trounson proved to be a tight and cohesive unit with an impressive rapport both between themselves and with their guest. This really was a cut above the average ‘guest soloist and local rhythm section’ gig, a fact that was reflected in the positive audience reaction and the very healthy sales of Xenopoulos’ CDs after the gig. It really was the best possible start to KJC’s new season and organiser Annette Gregory must have been delighted.

My thanks to Vasilis, Aaron and Keenan for speaking with me after the show. I’d seen Xenopoulos, Moloney and Trounson perform before, although not together, but Ngo was a new name to me. He represented an exciting new discovery and is certainly a musician to keep an eye open for in the future. With the help of sound engineer John , who also did a terrific job, he really got the best out of “Delphina” and was an excellent foil for Xenopoulos. As I say, one to look out for.

 

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