Jerry Bergonzi / Bruce Barth Quartet
(PizzaExpress Jazz Membership. 3 March 2024. Dwell evaluate by Charles Rees)

American tenor saxophonist Jerry Bergonzi is taken into account to be one of many nice saxophonists of the post-Coltrane technology, in addition to one of the vital distinguished educators in trendy jazz. Annually, he embarks on a brief tour of the UK that sees him be a part of forces with fellow American Bruce Barth (piano), Mark Hodgson (bass) and Stephen Keogh (drums). They’ve toured and recorded as a quartet for 20 years, together with annual performances (with few exceptions) at Pizza Specific Dean Road. Regardless of Saturday being the primary time in a yr that that they had performed collectively, they’re so in tune with one another’s taking part in at this level that issues simply appeared to choose up the place they final left off.

The essential theme of the music is what one would anticipate from Bergonzi. His units will sometimes characteristic a spread of requirements interspersed with just a few of his personal compositions, typically contrafacts (new melodies composed on chord adjustments from different songs). It’s a tried and true formulation that he has put a novel twist on over time. One such tune they performed was referred to as “Double Billed”: based mostly on the concord of Invoice Evans’ “Blue in Inexperienced”, however structured over 20 bars as an alternative of 10 and performed as a medium swing as an alternative of as a ballad. Additionally they performed one different Bergonzi unique, this time a dedication (or extra of a diss monitor) to former US President Donald Trump, fittingly titled… “Obama”!

As well as, Barth contributed two of his compositions to the set: one referred to as “Sunday”, the title monitor of a recording this group made in 2018, and one other entitled “Afternoon in Lleida”, a tribute to the town in Spain and likewise featured on that album. The opposite half of the set was comprised of requirements together with Thelonious Monk’s Pannonica and a unprecedented burnout on John Coltrane’s “Second’s Discover”. Additionally they performed Dave Brubeck’s “In Your Personal Candy Manner”, a tune that connects to Bergonzi’s time as a member of the pianist’s quartet throughout the ’70s (although he did make clear that, reasonably surprisingly, they by no means performed it on the time).

There may be perhaps no lively saxophonist right this moment who can categorical ballads with such sensitivity as Jerry Bergonzi. He’ll virtually all the time play one in a reside set, on this event choosing “I Can’t Get Began”. For sure, it was an actual spotlight of the efficiency.

Not but a subscriber of our Wednesday Breakfast Headlines?
Be a part of the mailing listing for a weekly roundup of Jazz Information.

Mark Hodgson and Stephen Keogh have super expertise taking part in with nice American musicians like Bergonzi and Barth. Certainly, they’re additionally the sidemen of selection each time the likes of Dick Oatts, Charles McPherson and Invoice Charlap go to the UK. That’s for a cause: Bergonzi’s taking part in specifically options a number of rhythmic and harmonic complexity which he was capable of execute to the best impact due to the rock-solid basis offered by his rhythm part. It’s not essentially what folks speak about after the gig, however Hodgson and Keogh all the time give the featured artist (or artists) precisely what they want.

Most saxophonists are beginning to decelerate by the point they attain their mid-70s. But Bergonzi, now aged 76, remarkably sounds as robust as ever! It was (and all the time is) such a pleasure to observe him within the firm of those musicians, and if the best way they performed collectively is any indication, the sensation from the bandstand was mutual. We should hope that they proceed to make these annual appearances at Pizza Specific for a few years to come back.