May 14, 2009 (From The Northern Echo)

May 14, 2009

5:36pm Thursday 14th May 2009 in

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WHAT'S ON

Tonight, Ryan Quigley Sextet, with Paul Booth on tenor sax, Newcastle Corner House, 0191-265-9602.

CD REVIEWS

Laurence Hobgood/When the Heart Dances (Naim Jazz NAIMCD112)

Apart from his records as accompanist to singer Kurt Elling, pianist Laurence Hobgood is probably little known even to the jazz community. This CD, though, could possibly change that. The playing is simply beautiful, the rapport with bass player, Charlie Haden, remarkable and the sound perfectly captured. The programme includes a slow Que Sera Sera and an exquisite New Orleans. Elling sings on three tracks including Daydreams.

Wynton Marsalis/He and She (Blue Note 10331)

Marsalis continues to expand and to challenge our expectations with this sequence of jazz waltzes inspired by a set of his poems on the eternal theme of man and woman. The music features Marsalis' wide ranging trumpet, Walter Blanding's saxophones and Dan Nimmer piano with Carlos Henriquez and Ali Jackson. It's interspersed with the poems, read by Marsalis, which are mostly brief. It works well as a programme, although I imagine it's the music I'll go back to.