Hints and tips:
...“My Funny Valentine” with Jim Hall is a classic, most are above par, but the band outing with Freddie Hubbard doesn’t gel....
...For the next week, Ronnie Scott’s lays bare the intricacies of unadorned rhythm sections with nightly double-bills as part of the International Piano Trio Festival....
...This return gig at Ronnie Scott’s featured original guitarist Russell Malone and new pianist Donald Vega (founding member Mulgrew Miller died from a stroke in May)....
...He is the only man in the world, other than Ronnie Wood, who still thinks it fetching to dangle a cigarette from his parched, and possibly radioactive, lips....
...Carter’s band glided through silky originals and well-shrouded classics – “Seven Steps to Heaven” stretched by two extra bars; a modal melody gaining a flamenco shade; “My Funny Valentine” reverberating...
...There was an enchanting second-set bossa, a piano feature on “My Funny Valentine” and a rock steady blues finale, a tribute to the late pianist Duke Pearson....
...And to close both were standards, an elongated “My Funny Valentine” before the interval, a slow and delicate “I Thought About You” to round off the evening....
...The real focus, though, was the trio itself, unpicking standards such as “My Funny Valentine” and well- worked originals....
International Edition