Ronnie Scott's, London
The jazz organ trio, with saxophone and drums, is one of the most cost-effective lineups you can have: it's like a mini big band, with swirling, punchy sounds that evoke Ivy League style and monochrome 1960s thrillers. But when the players are as gifted as the James Carter Organ Trio, it's a source of non-stop excitement. Saxophonist-leader Carter whirls the format back and forth across 100 years of jazz, playing tunes such as Django Reinhardt's Nuages and Brother Jack McDuff's Walking the Dog, with its irresistible rolling pedal bass riff.
Their originals are steeped in the idiom, too. Sussa Nita swoops effortlessly from bossa nova, through hard-rocking grooves to an out-there cadenza. Carter's command of extended techniques means he can play chords on whistling multiphonics, deep subtones, harmonics and intricate slap-tongue percussion without thinking about it. The sound could be challenging, but Carter performs with such charm that the diner sitting inches from his sax just smiles with pleasure.
Drummer Leonard King and organist Gerard Gibbs are equally adept, making intense musical gestures without breaking sweat. However complex the charts or the improvisation, their music flows as easily as a 12-bar blues. The band sound huge, and charge ahead like a train: there's boogaloo, swing and hard bop (Silver's Serenade by Horace Silver), and Gibbs extends his sound palette with digital piano and gorgeous close-harmony keyboard vocals ? all sampled from the guys in Take Six.
Gibbs has an endearing way of lifting his arms while playing bass lines on his pedals as if to say: "Look, no hands." Carter, always dazzling, always melodic, presides with a beatific smile: it's as if he's channelled every great sax player who ever appeared at Ronnie's.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/jul/24/james-carter-organ-trio-review
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