There are time at jazz gigs when everything is pefectly aligned, times when they are definitely not, and in this case in the course of the same gig. Start with the best: I had gone to Pizza Express to marvel at the great pianist Kirk Lightsey. And the miracle duly happened. Lightsey is always so eternally youthful, optimistic and life-giving, he chose to play “Spring is Here”….in November, followed by “Infant Eyes”, at the age of…. er, yes, 87.
This was irresistibly wonderful. He prefaced “Infant Eyes” with a little repeated quote from the Prelude to Ravel’s “Tombeau de Couperin”, and his solo had such beauty and unbelievable delicacy, I can only describe it a jazz listener’s heaven. After all, Kirk Lightsey is part of the history of the music. Born in the same year as Alice Coltrane, they had the same piano teacher… then there were the years with Dexter Gordon. The fact that he is still out there playing so wonderfully touches the heart.
Lightsey was in good company too. Drummer Sangoma Everett has liveliness and bounce and swing as if they are all factory-fitted. He had chaperoned the pianist over from Paris, and, avowedly, hoho, the great bassist Steve Watts had fetched them both from the station “in his Ferrari”. Alex Hitchcock was on tenor sax, and his playing has acquired a naturalness and flow which may have something to do with all the time he has spent recently in New York.
Yes, this was a really great gig. Except….
At one point a rowdy element got going and Lightsey was having to thump down major chords and shout “Shut-UP.” Lightsey’s persuasion, combined with instructions from other audience members had the desired effect – but this really shouldn’t have happened.
