A few rippling chords, a skipping bass pedal note, the caress of a cymbal is all took to set up a viscerally grooving pulse. Guest-with-the-trio tenor-man Mark Lockheart eased in with a breathy, sighing phrase to kick off Beatrice, ‘This is going to be good’, I thought.
Kaiyo 3, the trio built around the mutual musical telepathy of pianist Simon Purcell and bassist Amy Baldwin, like to be open to surprses and to respond in the moment. The onset of winter and seasonal bugs threw a curve ball for this gig, and as we arrived the band had morphed into a Kaiyo 3 still anchored by Baldwin, but now with Alcyona Mick in the piano chair and Winston Clifford behind the kit replacing the advertised Corrie Dick. Regret at the enforced absence of Purcell and Dick was replaced by excited anticipation at the quality of the freshly minted trio/ quartet. By the time British Jazz legend/ national treasure Henry Lowther had sat in during the second set, expectations were wildly exceeded.
The band wove a twisting path through an eclectic repertoire. Beatrice took off, driven by the boiling energy of Clifford at the drums, given a bristling, assertive reading of the Sam Rivers classics. Then three chiming chords from the piano and we were swept into the astringent beauty of the late John Taylor’s sound-world with his piece In February, it almost seemed like the piece was written for the robust but emotionally ragged sweep of Lockheart’s playing. A hand-brake turn took us into Jitterbug Waltz, before another swerve and the dreamy, chanting melody of Bill Frisell’s Strange Meeting conjured a muted, almost anthemic climax from the band.
Alcyona Mick was a delightful, mecurial, revelation at the piano. A few chords or phrases were sufficient to set the tone, no matter the style. From the pulsating post-bop of the opener to John Taylor with one rippled chord, then bending Fat’s Waller’s classic out of shape with a divergent imagination, before simple phrases immediately evoked the open-ness and space of Bill Frisell’s sound.
The group were stretching out together however and constantly surprising. A standout moment opened the second set on the Shorter classic 502 Blues. After the instantly recognisable theme, Mick seemed to unpack every possibility of the harmony from the inside out and lay it out before us with dense, swirling patterns, then Baldwin’s bass solo opened out and painted the possibilities of the melody with finely sculpted lines and just-so use of space; it was a don’t forget to breathe moment. Lowther joined the action and familiar standards, Invitation, Yesterdays, were explored and took us to an all-too-soon climax.
This may not have been the gig Kaiyo 3 plus 1 had expected, but the joy of the music and the quality of the musicians is that the unexpected is an occasion to create something new and special. We went out into the chilly London night thoroughly stimulated, warmed and uplifted.
