Reviews

A look at what is going on in the world of the arts.

Chris Potter's Underground

Whelan's, Dublin

If you want a label for the remarkable music produced by tenor saxophonist Chris Potter's quartet at Whelan's on Wednesday, then it has to be called jazz rock. Presented courtesy of The Improvised Music Company, this was jazz rock as it has seldom, if ever, been heard live in this country, a brilliant outpouring of invention and skill that held a capacity audience enthralled throughout the night. The group, completed by guitarist Wayne Krantz, bass guitarist Fima Ephron and the extraordinary drummer, Ari Hoenig, was that good.

Their opening Big Top, an up-tempo rocker, produced an almost visceral shock, such was the no-holds-barred energy with which they launched into it. It's a typically American, specifically New York thing; begin at full tilt and keep on going from there. And they did, continuing through a first set of originals, Underground, Next Best Western (dedicated, he said, to a hotel he didn't like), and a new, as yet untitled, piece, all presumably by Potter.

In the process they produced music of great ingenuity, full of constant surprise, and expressed with extraordinary virtuosity by Potter and Hoenig in particular - not that Krantz was lacking in that department, either.

What was striking about the music initially, apart from the virtuosic energy and the abundance of ideas, was its rhythmic variety and vitality. This is a group which could turn on the proverbial dime, changing tempo and metre with staggering aplomb and refreshing their improvisations by taking them into new areas.

But this was no simple, testosterone-fuelled, one-dimensional music; it was also full of light and shade. The compositions involved tricky lines executed perfectly at speed, while each performance was broken up with little figures, arranged passages signalled by the soloist, which took them into fresh territory. And, thanks to the work of Krantz, in particular, it had textural variety as well.

It seemed the band could hardly top its first set, but when they opened the second set with another original, Tuesday Morning, and followed it with an almost orgasmic Doctor Benway, which contained a marvellous guitar and drums colloquy, it was clear they were on another level.

Throughout, Potter was remarkable, displaying an acute awareness of the high-speed emphasis-shifting going on around him and soloing with compelling originality; for example, his long, unaccompanied, constantly inventive introduction to the only familiar tune of the night, the Beatles' Yesterday, was breath-taking, making the tune itself almost an anti-climax.

But there was nothing anti-climactic about either his or the band's performance, however. They were simply superb.

Ray Comiskey

Orla Keyes (flute)/

Darina Gibson (piano)

Bank of Ireland Arts Centre, Dublin

Damare - Nightingale Polka. John Rutter - Suite Antique. Saint-Saëns - Airs de Ballet d'Ascanio. Hüe - Fantaisie. Damare - Lark Polka

Orla Keyes received her early musical training in Dublin, and for the past few years has been studying flute at the University of Cincinnati.

Her lunchtime recital at the Bank of Ireland Arts Centre consisted entirely of works of the lighter kind - with one exception, bon-bons and competition pieces written in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by French composers. To work at all, such music must be played well.

This recital showed the sort of quiet flair that suits this music. Orla Keyes's tone was always pleasing; her playing had natural rhythmic life, with a way of phrasing that made contrasts of material pointed without being obvious; and her technique was always reliable.

The only problem was the programme. It was an interesting touch to begin and end with works for piccolo by Eugene Damare, who must be the king of earfloss for flute and piccolo. But the concert included nothing that could offer deeper musical satisfaction.

The Airs de Ballet d'Ascanio attributed to Saint-Saëns is an arrangement from his 1890 opera, with added twiddles to display virtuosity. The only piece that was not designed primarily around virtuosity was John Rutter's Suite Antique. The name and spelling, by a living English composer, typifies the music's triumph of style over substance. And the style is fake.

The most interesting work was a competition piece by George Hüe, the only composer with a serious record in concert music.

Apart from that, it was a pleasure listening to Darina Gibson's piano playing - as usual, faithful to the soloist's every twist and turn and beautifully shaped in its own right.

Martin Adams