Pianist Nico Widdowson has the authenticity and the Yorkshire grit – he was born in Leeds but grew up in North Wales – to bring both humour and anger to the stage. In the polite surroundings of his Worshipful Company of Musicians’ Tina May prizewinner’s concert, it was both refreshing and extremely welcome to see that.
The spoken introduction to his tune, “Angela Scott” had both – the anger and the humour: “If you don’t treat your tenants right,” he said, mock-threateningly to the landlord of his overpriced, shamefully neglected South London flat, “they might write an avant-garde jazz piano piece about you.” The tune itself which followed showed Widdowson’s particular brand of raw musical energy – it had the most overtly spiky music of the evening, with the pianist himself landing forcefully on cluster-chords, and bass player Joe McLaren, mostly unflappable, thwacking the strings and giving a rare glimpse of a daemonic inner John Edwards.
Humour and aggression are also there in Widdowson’s playing – I was hearing him for the first time. He has a fascination for early jazz and ragtime piano – we heard tunes evoking Willie the Lion Smith and Scott Joplin – but it was clear from listening that he sees all that history through the prism of more recent players: Thelonious Monk, who was mentioned, clearly, and also (I’m guessing wildly here) the likes of Don Pullen and Horace Tapscott.
There is contrast too. The ballad “To Those I Love” brought some truly appealing voice-leading and gentle melodic shaping, the whole art of thinking less vertically and more melodically about music is clearly there for him to call on if and when he needs it.
It was also particularly fascinating to witness what happened when the trio were joined by saxophonist Harben (formerly Helena) Kay, whose playing has progressed spectacularly; a real revelation. The tenor sound and the language, to my ears, are getting closer to those of a player such as Jimmy Giuffre. Kay’s solo feature, Meredith Wilson’s gentle “Till There Was You”, spun tenor arabesques like smoke-rings, and received wonderfully delicate support from Pyjaen drummer Charlie Hutchinson on brushes. A clear highlight of an evening which, by its very nature, giving a platform to young musicans on their own terms, and because of the supportive work of the Musicians’ Company, was full of optimism and hope for the future.
Phone snap
The next WCOM event is the Tina May Competition on 7 September. This year’s finalists are all vocalists.
