The Jazz Touring Collective has brought a breath of fresh air since it began operations last autumn and even if its best-supported venture to date featured a musician who actually lives in Glasgow, Tommy Smith, its main policy of introducing bands who otherwise would never be heard in Scotland has produced some cracking gigs around the country.
Not least this one by the first year's penultimate guests, Dutch pianist Michiel Borstlap's highly sympatico trio. Borstlap's main claim to fame is his Memory of Enchantment, which won the 1996 Thelonious Monk Composition Competition and inspired Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter to record their 1+1 album of piano/saxophone duets.
That tune featured here in a deliciously understated duet with drummer Joost Lijbaart alongside another original, Centurion, an attractive groover which ran a gamut of dynamics from tantalising near silence to excited celebration, with Borstlap's innate thoughtfulness and clarity of expression remaining uppermost irrespective of the heat created.
The point that emerged most strongly from this concert, however, was that you don't have to be writing your own tunes to make fresh, invigorating jazz. Cole Porter's I Love You (actually learned from Hancock apparently) was an initially delicate ticket for a more robust, more heart-in-mouth excursion than anything Alton Towers can offer, and Come Rain or Come Shine, emboldened by Anton Drukker's firm bass riff, had muscle as well as romance.
With an enterprising, tightly executed romp through Joe Zawinul's mazy Volcano for Hire to finish, this was a thoroughly impressive performance from a group which can be heard in Glenrothes, Aberdeen, Wick, Edinburgh and Paisley before completing their first Scottish visit in Glasgow's Tron Theatre next Sunday.
n Saxophonist Stanley Turrentine has pulled out of his European tour with Gene Harris and will be replaced by Frank Wess in Nairn tonight.
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