“How did these people get so good?” This was the question Adrian Chiles asked in a Guardian piece yesterday (*), with the title “I may not understand jazz – but I know enough to know it’s wonderful”. I wasn’t expecting the question to be answered quite so well, or quite so soon as it was last night at Larry Pryce’s Thursday series in Chiswick.
Yes, it’s a good question. How indeed did a group like Trio Manouche, led by singer/ guitarist/ occasional trumpeter Simon Harris, and one of the UK’s most enjoyable party bands – but playing at a musically fabulous level – get so good? Probably in the first place because the individual members are off-the-scale as natural and instinctive musicians. But then comes the important bit: each of the group (billed as a trio but in reality a trio of four, I’ve no idea either) will have spent literally thousands of hours rehearsing and playing to audiences, a process of by which they find out the material that really works for them, and through which they can lift the energy level . By making sure that everyone onstage is actually enjoying themselves, by finding joy in their own authenticity. And the result is that these are musicians capable of projecting who they are in a completely authentic way. That’s probably enough answers to Chiles’s question to be going on with…
The name tells you they are a gypsy jazz band, but Simon Harris has a number of other things going on: he has an Italian heritage through his mother, speaks the language completely fluently, and his great cover of the 1956 song “Tu vuo’ fa’ l’americano” has amassed Spotify plays approaching 5 million. What I wasn’t expecting, however, was how much more resonance he now has in his voice when compared to the recording which is now more than a decade old, and how his vocal presence and his friendly stage presence have evolved to something contagious in the most positive sense of the word. There is an object lesson to be learnt here: it’s worth sticking at things and experiencing how much better and fuller they can get. This was such an enjoyable gig.
Another good thing going on is Harris’s songwriting. There are some really quirky and fun songs here, like “Anna Banana” about the uncertainties of young uncommitted love – or rather…lust – or the irrepressiblly energetic “Fall in Love with Swing”. And another strength: this band seems to make a speciality of creating teasingly and distractingly un-obvious and endings to tunes.
Another joy of this band is the guitar playing of Giulio Romano Malaisi, a completely new name to me. Originally from Ancona, he became an adoptive Londoner at the age of 18 and is superb in every way, and also an ideal and contrasting foil for Simon Harris. He is one of those musicians who has clearly fallen under the spell of Jim Mullen while here in London (he doesn’t deny it). The Scotsman’s particular kind of melodic joy and “quote city” is addictive, and something which on the “if you can hear it you can have it” principle, is a great thing for musicians to add to their musical armoury, however substantial it already is, and Romano’s is more than impressive anyway. I was also enjoying all of his civilised and cultured voice-leading and phrase-shaping, but equally his urge to to disrupt all that with some really savage crossbeat stuff. When do I want to hear Giulio Romano Malaisi again? As soon and as often as possible,
Competing the picture were Dave Kelbie on rhythm guitar and Marcus Penrose on bass. These are the kind of fine musicians, stalwarts who risk going unnoticed, but are contributing to every moment, and giving the enterprise a real quality feel.
It was great to go back and to hear a band after several years and to find out how well it has evolved, how it has found its own totally convincing way of being, its own certainty, and a rightness and joy about everything it does. More dates below. In a word, go.
Jazz on Thursdays at The George IV is presented in partnership with The Chiswick Calendar
TRIO MANOUCHE DATES
27 July Green Note, Camden
24 November The George IV, Chiswick. Part of EFG London Jazz Festival
