Kyle Eastwood is a regular visitor to the U.K., usually appearing at Ronnie Scott’s on an “annual residency”. Eastwood plays down his connection to his famous actor and director father, which made the concept of Eastwood Plays Eastwood intriguing. As musical concepts go, it’s a killer (also see album review, link below). The premise was to play numbers from films that Clint Eastwood has either acted or directed. Anyone with a passing knowledge of Clint Eastwood films would know of his keen interest in jazz and how often jazz music features in his films. What perhaps isn’t as well known is the input that Kyle has had in composing some of these songs. So this gig was the perfect opportunity to showcase his compositions and his talent in arranging some of the more well known themes.
There was one innovation which I thought worked really well. For each number, there was a projection on the wall behind the band. It changed with each tune and showed a still from each film with titles and composition details. At one point, there was a life size projection of Clint wearing a poncho from the spaghetti western days and of roughly the same age as Kyle, appearing to look over the shoulder of Kyle. The family resemblance was remarkable.
The band were simply superb and their playing seamless. There were plenty of opportunities for the band members to solo. It’s almost unfair to mention names but Chris Higginbottom’s drumming performance impressed, energetic with gorgeous brushwork featured on a couple of numbers and on the encore, lending a latin feel and demonstrating his cross stick technique.
The show opening was straight ahead blues with Charlie Parker’s “Cool Blue” from Bird. There were other trips into the past. A muscular medley of Lalo Schifrin’s tunes from Magnum Force and Dirty Harry captured that energetic 1970’s vibe shared by police films and dramas of that time.
A slightly more surprising choice was John Williams’ theme from The Eiger Sanction. It lent itself well to a jazz arrangement while still keeping some of Williams’ dramatic musical flourishes.
The mood slowed down with a couple of Kyle’s compositions using acoustic bass. The standout tune for me was the theme from Letters from Iwo Jima. A gorgeous song with the bass picking out the melody, accompanied by lovely sax and brushes on the drums.
We’d been wondering if any of the music from the spaghetti westerns would feature. Kyle announced that we had come to “the part where we play Mr. Morricone”. First came “A Fistful of Dollars” featuring Kyle’s arrangement with minor chords, making it feel almost menacing. Then came “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”. The famous 5 note whistle was played on flugelhorn and then the tempo picked up with musical lines tumbling over each other and solos from horns and bass. Behind this, Chris was laying down a latino style tempo to bring a high energy finish to the evening’s music.
The length of the queue waiting to buy recordings and say hi after the gig was testament to how well the music was received. Given the wealth of potential material for Eastwood Plays Eastwood, I would love to hear a longer show in a bigger venue, complete with the projected backdrops.
BAND
Kyle Eastwood: acoustic and electric bass
Quentin Collins: trumpet and flugelhorn
Brandon Allen: tenor and soprano saxophone
Andrew McCormack: piano
Chris Higginbottom: drums
Setlist
Cool Blues
The Eiger Sanction
Dirty Harry/Magnum Force
Letters from Iwo Jima
Gran Torino
A Fistful of Dollars
Encore: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
