Joe Northwood’s Tuk Tuk with Geoff Simkins
Dempsey’s, Cardiff
Wednesday, 23 November 2016

It was early on in the evening’s music, even if it was by then half past nine: commencing his solo midway through a rendition of Lennie Tristano’s “317 East 32nd Street”, alto saxophonist Geoff Simkins had arranged for – or subtly cued – the rhythm section to drop out completely.  When the applause for Joe Northwood’s prior contribution abated, there were only Simkin’s playful melodies, dancing in mid-air, the hushed silence swinging along in precise accompaniment.

Chet Baker, in his later years, would opine that only a pretty good drummer was better than no drummer at all; and in that magical moment, of the sort that Jazz at Dempsey’s with its listening audience can conjure up, Simkins implicitly challenged bassist Aidan Thorne and drummer Paolo Adamo.  It was a challenge to which both of them rose.

On Wednesday, upstairs in Dempsey’s, tenor saxophonist Joe Northwood’s Tuk Tuk launched a residency which will see the trio performing there approximately once a month with a succession of guest musicians.  The first of these, Geoff Simkins, may have helped to draw in a strong contingent of students from the jazz course at RWCMD.  Certainly, the three dozen who had assembled by the end of the night’s first tune, Dietz and Schwartz’s “Alone Together”, made for a relatively healthy crowd; larger than the combined total who’d enjoyed the trio’s two previous performances at the venue, either side of the August recess.  (And that is a figure in which I’m counting myself and other stalwarts twice.)

The trio have produced an excellent five track EP or mini-album containing four strong original compositions from Northwood and these, alongside contemporary originals by the likes of Marc Guiliana and Avishai Cohen, comprise the main part of the trio’s usual repertoire.  Wednesday’s performance was very different, featuring standards only.  Simkins did not really enter the world of Tuk Tuk as we know it; rather, they journeyed into his.

The alto saxophonist, a former teacher of Northwood, is known as a disciple of Lee Konitz: accommodating and supporting this sometimes demanding and austere vision, the trio were stretched in the kind of ways they had hopefully envisaged when embarking upon the project.  Normally, drummers take up their wire brushes in order to play more gently and quietly: when Adamo swapped his sticks for them during “My One and Only Love”, he did so in order to raise the intensity while keeping a firm cap upon the volume.

If the first set was dominated by restraint, its highlight was the long version of “I’ll Remember April” which brought it to a joyful close.  It was the right month for this tune, and it was a bit looser than all that preceded it.  Northwood followed Simkins with a convincing tenor solo which exploited the musical understanding his trio have developed; breaking the time, slowing and stuttering, then flowing onward, as if a gap had suddenly opened up in a crowd; and the drummer essayed a long solo built upon, and never straying too far, from a single five note motif which suggested the subtle samba-style rhythm upon which this version sailed.

The second set further fractured the initial air of restraint.  Anarchy briefly reigned, when the band segued from “Foolin’ Myself” to “Barbados”, suddenly sounding like the piano-less avant-garde line up that their instrumentation might suggest.  In Parker’s Caribbean-alia, the leader found an excuse for some hot and hard riffing and an opportunity to encourage Aidan Thorne to colour in the outlines he sketched.  The quartet followed this with a version of Konitz’s “Friendlee”, and then concluded with an unannounced but wholly gorgeous version of “Misty”; Simkins giving everybody plenty to think about or sing to themselves on the way home. 

This was a promising beginning for a new departure for the band and the organisers.  Tuk Tuk have promised to be back sometime in January with a new guest, as yet unspecified: now there’s a vague New Year resolution that all present will hope they keep.

Sean Wilkie

blog comments powered by Disqus