Tim Garland‘s Lighthouse Trio’s 20th anniversary tour began with the London album launch in Kings Place Hall One last night. The tour continues with summer and autumn dates through to November. Put simply, go.
John Fordham, in the brilliant feature he wrote for UKJN a few weeks ago (link below), doesn’t just explain in careful detail the whole of this complex project and where it fits into Tim Garland’s many-faceted creative life, he has also completely captured that particular feeling of the coruscating energy which this group is capable of delivering in the live context. There is an unvarying constant here: all these top-level musicians’ batteries seem to remain fully charged to respond to every opportunity, and turn and twist. Right through to the very last sound. After “our last tune” came the planned encore, and they launch straight in to Mingus’s “Nostalgia in Times Square” which has been given an extra rhythmic kicker by being put into 5/4 time. It has an extraordinary bouncing, skipping lightness. These players never cease to energise each other.
Another aspect of the live performance is the strong visual identity which the project has. To state the obvious, you need to be there!! – but the visuals serve many purposes and do them brilliantly. They are not just an invitation to watch and enjoy constantly changing shapes and colours and see how they interact with the music. They also are also a call to think about broader themes – the fascinating diversity of humanity, the power of the imagination, the world seen through the eyes of children….- all of which comes from the genius involvement of Turkish visual artist/ animator Esra Kizir Gokcen.
Those of us who try to follow the music scene closely know that what we are going to hear is going to be at the absolute top level. Look at the credentials, follow the form book, do the homework: Tim Garland had seventeen years with Chick Corea, Gwilym Simcock has been in Pat Metheny’s band, and Asaf Sirkis is now – simply put – clearly at the level of his one-time idol Stewart Copeland. And if the classical music world (still!) often resembles golf with its arcane hierarchies and rankings, then Thomas Gould has the green jacket from Augusta: there isn’t a higher level. And yet, as ever, together, the live experience at close quarters will give more. In order to be energised, thrilled, stimulated, gobsmacked like this…you simply need to be there.
