Andy Davies quartet, Upstairs at Ronnie's, Soho ****

It's been a while since we last checked out the Wednesday night hard bop session upstairs at Ronnie's led these past 15 years by the trumpeter and flugel player Andy Davies. What was striking last night on the latest running was how packed the place …

Published: 19 Jan 2023. Updated: 5 months.

It's been a while since we last checked out the Wednesday night hard bop session upstairs at Ronnie's led these past 15 years by the trumpeter and flugel player Andy Davies. What was striking last night on the latest running was how packed the place was, a lot of the assembled punters, mainly by the look of a good many of the casual throng chilling, aged in their twenties and thirties, and stood lolling in front of where the quartet were playing. Standing always adds to the sense of feverish atmosphere especially when the gig goers can get very close to the band. We stayed for the first set - the jam was to follow after the break - reluctantly heading back into the chill of the night.

A quartet on this occasion Rick Simpson on the upright piano it is fair to say stole the show, his big technique marauding over the 88 keys as playfully as if they were the dinkiest of dinky toys. We've been a fan of Daniel Casimir's for years having first heard the bassist on our home turf in a small bar in Northern Ireland and more recently with Camilla George's band a year and a half ago (on that occasion playing bass guitar) in Camden Town. But here he was in classic hard bop guise on the double bass, very fast when he walked the swinging lines that are stitched into the fabric of the hard bop repertoire and so in tandem with Simpson made a very propulsive team.

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Rick Simpson and Daniel Casimir upstairs at Ronnie's last night

The waistcoat and bow tie-wearing Welsh wiz Davies removed his cap to cover his flugel that was resting on the floor when not in use. Later the bow tie was loosened a tad rakishly 

Tunes included 'Broadway', 'Blue Monk', Lee Morgan's ever popular 'The Sidewinder' preferred instead of 'The Jody Grind' the Horace Silver standard callously rejected after a brief confab between Davies and Simpson. 'Body and Soul' the highlight of the evening certainly in terms of Davies' interpretative facility and 'Tangerine' the old Johnny Mercer and Victor Schertzinger number from the 1940s that Chet Baker did a delicious version of on his 1974 album She Was Too Good To Me. Davies has chops every bit as compelling in his heyday as Chet's and can do tender as well as blistering. Saleem Raman on drums was as tidy as ever and again like Casimir and Simpson was able to negotiate ridiculously up-tempo passages to the manner born. So there you have it - a jewel of a night in the crown of the London jazz scene continues to beckon and gleam.

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Joanna Eden and Guillermo Hill, Braziliance night, Upstairs at Ronnie's, Soho ***

There is a certain sepia tinted quality to the 1970s latin-jazz style of Joanna Eden who was appearing upstairs at Ronnie's last night with guitarist Guillermo Hill. That's evident on Eden's latest album Love Quiet. Hill, who is also on the album, …

Published: 19 Jan 2023. Updated: 8 months.

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There is a certain sepia tinted quality to the 1970s latin-jazz style of Joanna Eden who was appearing upstairs at Ronnie's last night with guitarist Guillermo Hill. That's evident on Eden's latest album Love Quiet. Hill, who is also on the album, was perched on an elevated box seated to the English woman's side and the Uruguayan was a quiet presence who knew how to select his moment harmonically.

Eden presses and cajoles chords in accompaniment to her flexible surprisingly high often quite soulful lilting voice choosing songs that she wrote for instance on a trip to Uruguay or while in Italy in Bologna, writing there as a ''cure'' for her melancholy.

Songs of summer and covers including a well aimed treatment of The Isley Brothers classic 'Summer Breeze' and Wayne Shorter's 'Footprints' were included in a very persuasive performance. The little finger of Eden's left hand often acted as a lever to allow her hand to dive into a chord often favouring samba-like rhythmical accents as well as more 1970s singer-songwriter type settings.

When the Shorter treatment goes into more open territory and Eden's accompaniment becomes more jazz centric it shows how she is also happy to venture away from the road less travelled to charter new paths instrumentally and this was when Hill responded best. But there wasn't much break-out improvisation in the set, flashes here and there only - that's not the point so much in her style and certainly storytelling in her own fine lyrics drive Eden's artistry more than any probing instrumental explorations. Eden read notation from sheet music on a tablet breaking between songs to explain a song or two to the very full upstairs seated audience. First set highlights included as unlikely as it sounds a fairly jolly take on Fran Landesman and Tommy Wolf's 'Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most' first recorded by Jackie and Roy in the 1950s that certainly exhibited a glimpse of the width of interpretations possible in the classic song. Eden's originals have a thoughtful blissed out quality to them especially 'Love Quiet' the title track of her fine new album. SG