By: Roy Stevens - Mon, May 23, 2011

On Sunday evening the Chapel at No1, Shakespeare Street held an excellent gig when pianist Geoff Eales brought a formidable line-up to celebrate his 60th birthday.

On reeds was Ben Waghorn a firm favourite with Stratford Jazz fans both with his own bands and when accompanying the numerous stars that he has appeared with, his robust tone, particularly on tenor-sax proved to be an excellent foil for Geoff’s flamboyant piano.

The renowned Fred T Baker was on bass displaying the usual flair and enthusiasm that makes him one the leading jazz/folk exponents on his instrument – indeed his rendition of Monk’s “Blue Monk” was arguably the highlight of a splendid evening of quality jazz.

Completing this fine quartet was a newcomer to Stratford Jazz in Simon Pearson on drums, this former student of Leeds College of Music and the Guildhall in London proved to be a percussionist with amazing dexterity which he tempered with his discerning musicianship.

Geoff originally trained as a classical pianist but maintains that jazz is his first love. His style has often been described as eclectic which is a pretty fair description as the influences ranging from Bill Evans to Oscar Peterson to Chick Corea can be readily detected – he is not averse to introducing passages from the classical repertoire into his improvisations, all done with tongue in cheek humour. His solo piece of “Tea for Two” executed in Art Tatum style (?) with bits of Oscar Peterson and J. S. Bach thrown in was particularly great fun.

You will gather that this is a group that enjoys its jazz and it quickly had the audience on side with a mixture of jazz/standards ballads and an occasional original from Geoff. Solo space was liberally spread between all four protagonists producing good honest free swinging jazz , a cracking birthday celebration to honour a real star of the British jazz scene.

On Sunday 29 May the pianist/composer Kieron Garrettt brings his quartet to the Chapel at No1, Shakespeare Street. A strong feature of this quartet is the presence of Duncan Eagles on tenor-sax a young man who is forging a formidable reputation on the UK jazz scene. The performance commences at 8pm and for more info please visit: www.stratfordjazz.org.uk

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