London-based saxophonist and composer Tom Ridout has been running jazz jam nights every Monday at sYp, a bar and live music venue in the heart of the capital’s financial district, for over a year. Sat in the shadow of the Gherkin (aka 30 St Mary Axe), sYp’s surroundings don’t necessarily suggest ‘jazz’; nonetheless, the venue was packed out for this special Saturday night concert, part of the EFG London Jazz Festival. Tom assembled a quintet for this gig, which was a tribute to Cannonball Adderley and his brother Nat’s classic 1960 album ‘Quintet at the Lighthouse’. Much like the Adderley group, some members of the sYp band had more in common than just their musical influences- namely, their common genealogy.
One such musician was his sister, NYC-based rising star trumpeter Alexandra Ridout. She is a frequent sideperson with such top-drawer musicians as Ingrid Jensen, Dayna Stephens and Jochen Rueckert, and recently led her own group at NYC’s prestigious Jazz Gallery. She had the task of ‘playing’ cornetist Nat on this gig, one of a handful she contributed to at this year’s festival. Alex’s playing is shaped by the tradition of great trumpeters like Freddie Hubbard and Clifford Brown, but is resolutely her own; her punchy, soulful solo on Jimmy Heath’s ‘Big P’ and fluid abstractions over ‘What is This Thing Called Love’ made quite the impression on the sYp audience.
Continuing the family theme was drummer Lester Ridout, currently an undergraduate at London’s Guildhall School, performing the role of Louis Hayes. Despite his young age, Lester drove the band with fire and imagination. His explosive interaction with both horn players was particularly striking, notably during brother Tom’s intense solo on the record’s first track, ‘Sack O’ Woe’, and later throughout the blazing ‘Our Delight’.
Eschewing his usual tenor, Tom played alto sax for the whole gig (something he told me he hadn’t done for several years) to get closer to the Adderley sound. His playing has a Cannonball flavour- namely, the bright immediacy of his alto sound and his crisp, clear phrasing. His lengthy solos on ‘Exodus’ and ‘Big P’ showed a startling inventiveness and willingness to push himself and the rhythm section into new territory. Pianist Harry Ashworth– filling the shoes of English pianist Victor Feldman, one of Miles Davis’s pianists in the early 1960s – dropped out and re entered during Tom’s solos several times, allowing the saxophonist space to build his solos with bass and drums.
Photo credit: Marta Gornitzka
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Ashworth had several standout moments of his own, especially his rich chordal solo on Frank Rosolino’s ‘Blue Daniel’ and some Phineas Newborn-esque octaves on ‘Our Delight’. His rhythmic hookup with bassist and current RAM student Guy Dempsey (Sam Jones)- who delivered an unwavering crotchet beat and grounded, melodic improvising throughout the whole evening- provided a consistently high level of energy for the soloists to feed off.
Overall, this was a highly enjoyable evening of music performed by some of London’s most exciting young up-and-comers. They captured the danceable spirit which makes Cannonball and Nat so recognisable, all the while infusing it with more contemporary developments in jazz. Tom Ridout is running something special in this corner of the city, and it is well worth your time- regular Monday nights resume from next week (2 December).
(*) Hamley Jenkins says of the drawing above: “Alex makes her trumpet sound like it’s made out of gold, absolutely beautiful!!”
