By Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer
Maurice Gordon on guitar, Dillion White on drums, Pam Hall in lead and Azzizzi on bass during 'Evening Of Jazz'. - Hugh Stone Photo
WESTERN BUREAU:
ON A day when the West Indies had their tails up against Bangladesh at Sabina Park, Maurice Gordon and Friends played jazz under the lights in the pavilion of the Melbourne Cricket Club.
They were not only under fluorescents at the famed Derrymore Road, St. Andrew club, on Sunday evening, but also beneath the legends of two centuries in one match and 10 wickets in an innings in Test cricket, as inscribed on plaques in the roof.
With A. Valentine's 8 for 104 and 3 for 100 for the West Indies at Old Trafford in 1950 spinning a web of bowling wizardry and George Headley's 106 and 107 against England at Lords in 1939 to look up to, the starting quartet of Maurice Gordon on guitar, Phillip James on keyboards, Dwayne Livingstone on bass and Dillion White on drums took to the musical wicket before less than packed stands.
From the opening number it was clear that it was not a George Headley style one man effort, what with each musician soloing in turn. Drum and bass proved to be a particularly effective pair, Dillion playing the anchor role as Livingstone tossed stylings freely to all corners of the venue, to an enthusiastic 'Yeah!' from the audience.
Off to a good start with Straight, No Chaser, the band continued in fine form, a hint of dancehall weaving its way into the next song.
The laid-back title track from Gordon's Irie Mood CD featured a keyboard solo that went as high and long as a Curtley Ambrose six, the following Mek The Music Flow being a foot-stomper, Gordon shaking a mean leg as he played the guitar.
There was a change of field well, the cymbals, anyway for drummer Desi Jones, who needed no time to settle in at the crease, slapping a snare shot or two to the boundary and tickling some exquisite open hi-hats to a fine leg or two which twitched in the audience.
And that was before he exploded into a flurry that was the drumming equivalent of Gary Sobers hitting six sixes in one over.
Gordon did some grooming of the pitch, using his foot to squeeze back a few cracks that had opened up as the components of the stage felt the drumming onslaught, Jones seeming hell bent on keeping his strike rate well over 100. And when the song was over, to much applause, it took more hands and feet to get the stage back in order.
PAM HALL
With the change in field, Pam Hall was introduced into the jazz attack. She chose the artistry of spin rather than the fire of pace, singing her sentiments that walking on sand/I'm holding your hand/I feel like a tourist in my own land.
"Of course, you know that is Jamaica," she said. "Let me tell you a secret. I wasn't born here, but I waan see a one get me outa dis. Not to mention that as little breeze start blow I start shiver. That's why I love...," she said, moving smoothly from sentence to lyric of Summertime.
Hall rocked along as she sang I got rhythm in my system going into high scatting before the band took over for a jam.
"Talk about swinging!" Hall said on another number, as she observed Desi Jones at work, hitting a high, swooping note over a drum crescendo to end her set.
The cymbals were switched around again and White returned for Ba Ba Boom from Gordon's Festival Time CD. Azzizzi, a young student of Gordon's, took over from Livingstone for Money Maker ('a classic reggae tune'). "Leave him out there? We going to leave him out there," Gordon said, as they left Azzizzi to solo. When the call for 'riddim' went up, Azzizzi was right on the button and there was applause.
No cricket match is complete without lunch and the jazz show at Melbourne on Sunday night honoured the sport of gentlemen with a drinks break.
Charlie Parker's Anthropology started the second round, White included the side of one drum in a particular solo and Pam Hall scatted away merrily a la Sarah Vaughn when she returned, finding some 'scatalikes' at Melbourne.
Azzizzi came back for the final song, done without Hall, relaxing enough to put a little right shoulder movement into the grumble of his instrument, a happy Maurice Gordon bouncing like an in-form, century-making Brian Lara earlier in the day at Sabina Park.
The song and show ended with a bang to applause and the stumps were pulled up, signalling an end to an innings well played.
