UK Jazz News

Rory Ingham Quintet with Nigel Hitchcock…

...Laurence Cottle, Ian Thomas, Jonathan Mansfield. Jazz at the Woodman. 26 February 2025

L-R: Nigel Hitchcock, Rory Ingham, Laurence Cottle, Jonathan Mansfield . Photo credit @themusiciansphotographer

“The greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.” (Roald Dahl). That is definitely true for London’s musician-led gigs, and absolutely sums up last night’s astonishing free-admission session at the Woodman on Archway Road, just by Highgate tube station.

Trombonist Rory Ingham puts on a monthly night at the pub(*) , but the sheer quality of last night’s quintet really was something else: “Wow!!!! A LISTERS!!!! Love them all” wrote Pedro Segundo from New Orleans in response to a photo I posted on Facebook.

These A-Listers were:

Nigel Hitchcock (tenor sax)
Rory Ingham (trombone)
Jonathan Mansfield (vibes)
Laurence Cottle (bass)
Ian Thomas (drums)

The music they played was jazz-funk, and mostly a selection from the quintet arrangements on the 2010 Mark Nightingale Quintet album “Out of the Box” (Woodville) which unites Hitchcock, Cottle and Thomas.

The phrase that kept coming to my mind hearing this group was “professional energy”. To witness the spark, the connection so close up was extraordinary, in particularly the total solidity and heft of Ian Thomas‘s drumming. I felt completely uplifted as these great, vastly experienced musicians set about challenging each other to do something even more extraordinary it truly, wonderfully overwhelming. One stalwart of the scene I saw looking on couldn’t help bursting into a smile all the time. The truly rare treat – and our good fortune as listeners – was to see/hear one of the world’s most consummate saxophonists Nigel Hitchcock here in London, brought here from Germany by completely different circumstances. He has amazing presence in the sound, and the way he connects with, lives with the driving rhythm of Cottle and Thomas will stay in the mind for a long time.

Kudos to Rory Ingham for having instigated the gig and led it, and taken some superb forceful solos, and also to Jonathan Mansfield who always rises unflappably to every musical challenge put in front of him. And to the people who run the Woodman… in the first place for simply still being there, having lived through the period 1973-1990 as the likely first building to fall in the event of construction starting on a southern A1 motorway extension to Archway – presumably with the aim of speeding up Maggie’s journey to her Finchley constituency… but more importantly for continuing to support this great musician-led gig. Last night was the kind of evening I will want to tell my grandchildren about (I doubt if they will be particularly thrilled yet, but trust me, one day they will!)

The quintet. Photo credit Rita Manning

VERY APPROXIMATE SET LIST

Closure (Cottle)
Billie’s Bounce (Parker)
The Clump- (Graham Harvey)
All the Things You Are (Kern)
Unlikely Foursome (Cottle)

Eight Inch Clock (N Hitchcock)
Giblets – (L Cottle)
Everything I Love…(Cole Porter)
Eternal Triangle (Sonny Stitt)
Soul Fire (Cottle)

(*) Jazz at the Woodman is every Wednesday. Rory Ingham returns with saxophonist Olly Wilby on 26 March

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